Description: Trees or shrubs, monoecious.
Leaves alternate, entire; shortly petiolate.
Flowers in axillary clusters or in leafless spikes. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 5. Male flowers with 5 stamens, filaments basally united into a column borne on a disc; ovary aborted but style mostly present. Female flowers with a 3-locular ovary; 2 ovules in each loculus; styles bifid.
Capsule 3-lobed, separating into three 2-valved portions.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 140 species, Africa, Asia to SW Pacific. Australia: 9 species, Qld, N.S.W., N.T.
Formerly placed in Euphorbiaceae.
Text by T.A. James & G.J. Harden, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 1: 393 (1990), in Euphorbiaceae
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed May 2017)
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