Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Small maritime shrubs 1–1.5 m tall.

Stems: Branches often (3)4(5)–angled.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades succulent. Apex rounded to acuminate. Base sessile. Surfaces glabrous. Margins entire. Petiole absent. Stipules minute and caducous.

Flowers: Flowers in small, strobiloid, axillary or terminal spikes. Flowers unisexual; initially enclosed by a membranous saccate organ (perhaps calyx or bracteoles) that eventually splits into 2 or 4 lobes or only along 1 side; perianth parts 4, distinct (sometimes considered to be staminodes), absent in pistillate flowers. Tepals 4 or 5, distinct, white, equal. Stamens 4, alternate with the perianth; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits; gynoecium vestigial in staminate flowers. Ovary superior (pistilate flowers), 2-carpellate, 4-celled, the 2 primary cells each divided by a partition from the carpel midrib to the central axis, placentation parietal–basal; ovules 1 per cell, anatropous; stigmas 2, sessile.

Fruit: Fruit drupaceous; adapted to dispersal by flotation in saltwater. Seeds without endosperm and perisperm.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Maritime.

Elevation Range: