Evergreen trees or shrubs or a parasitic climber (Cassytha). Stipules 0. Leaves simple, alternate, well-developed or minute and scale-like (Cassytha). Flowers bisexual or unisexual, actinomorphic, 3-merous. Perianth calyx-like, usually 6-lobed; in two rows. Fertile stamens usually in 4 whorls, together with an innermost row of 3 staminodes. Ovary superior (in ours), 1-locular. Style simple; stigma terminal, sometimes 2-lobed. Fruit a berry, drupe or sometimes dry, indehiscent. Seed 1, without endosperm.