Shrubs or woody climbers; dioecious or polygamous. Leaves multicostate. Flowers panicled, minute, greenish and trimerous. Sepals 6, 2-seriate, inner larger. Petals 6, smaller than the sepals, usually auricled, concave. Male flowers: stamens 6, filaments free, anthers subglobose, opening by transverse slits. Female flowers: staminodes 6 or absent; carpels 3-6, uniovulate; style cylindrical. Drupes usually 3, laterally compressed, scar of the style basal. Seed tubercled, horseshoe-shaped, albuminous.