Description: Deciduous trees, shrubs or woody vines with poisonous sap, dioecious.
Leaves alternate, compound, mostly imparipinnate, leaflets opposite.
Flowers in axillary, thyrsoid panicles or racemes, bracts not persistent, fruiting inflorescences pendent. Sepals 5, imbricate in bud, persistent in fruit. Stamens 5, inserted below a lobed, annular, cupuliform disc, reduced in female flowers. Ovary 1-locular.
Drupes ± globose or laterally compressed, whitish to brownish, glabrous or pubescent, the bony endocarp and mesocarp adhering, exocarp brittle, papery, separating from the mesocarp at maturity.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 6 species North America, eastern Asia. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by M. J. Taylor
Taxon concept:
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