Trees , deciduous; sap milky. Terminal buds surrounded by bud scales. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled; stipules caducous, free. Leaf blade ovate, lobed or entire, margins dentate; venation appearing palmate or weakly 3-veined from base. Staminate inflorescences pedunculate, cylindric spikes; pistillate inflorescences short-pedunculate, globose capitula. Flowers: staminate and pistillate on different plants. Staminate flowers: sepals 4, connate at base; stamens 4, inflexed. Pistillate flowers: sepals 4, connate, forming tube; ovary superior, stipitate, 1-locular; style unbranched. Fruits globose; each drupelet partly protruding from its enlarged calyx. x = 13.

Dioecious; staminate fls in cylindric catkins, with deeply 4-lobed cal and 4 stamens; pistillate fls in dense, globose heads, with 4-lobed cal and one long, exserted style; fr globose, dense, consisting chiefly of the accrescent calyces, from which the orange achenes protrude; trees or shrubs with serrate or lobed, alternate lvs. 7, e. Asia, Polynesia.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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