Dioecious trees or shrubs with simple indumentum. Latex 0. Stipules present. Leaves alternate, simple. Flowers in fascicles, borne in axils of leaves or on the old wood. Male flowers: calyx closed in bud, later with 4-5 imbricate sepals; petals 0; pistillode minute or 0; disk intrastaminal; stamens 4-many. Female flowers like the male but sepals caducous; ovary 1-2-locular with 2 ovules per loculus. Fruit drupe-like, indehiscent. Seed 1 per loculus. Worldwide: c. 200 species in the tropics, E Asia and southern Africa Zimbabwe: 5 taxa. |
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