Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Dioecious trees or shrubs.

Stems: Branchlets, petioles, and inflorescences stellate pubescent.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate or opposite. Margins entire or toothed, sometimes 3–lobed. Petiolate, sometimes peltate. Stipules small, inconspicuous.

Flowers: Flowers in axillary or terminal spikes, racemes, or panicles staminate flowers clustered pistillate flowers solitary in the bracts. Flowers unisexual. Calyx of staminate flowers with 2–4 lobes; lobes, valvate. Calyx of pistillate flower spathaceous, 2–6-lobed, sometimes caducous. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens in staminate flower numerous, strongly exserted. Ovary superior (pistillate flowers), 2–4– celled; ovules 1 per cell; styles distinct or connate at base.

Fruit: Capsules 2–4–lobed; dehiscent or rarely indehiscent; spiny; tuberculate; scurfy; or smooth; the valves separating from a persistent column. Seeds black; ovoid to globose.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: