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Flowers monœcious or diœcious, the male in stalked axillary cymes or clusters, the female crowded on a subglobose fleshy receptacle. Male: Perianth 5-rarely 4-partite, segments membranous, valvate or very slightly imbricate, without an appendage. Stamens 5, rarely 4.Ovary rudiment small. Female: Perianth very small, 3–4-partite, persistent in fruit. Ovary erect; stigma sessile, penicillate, soon falling; ovule erect from the base. Achene ovoid, almost covered by the enlarged fleshy perianth-segments or, in the African species, surrounded at the base by the closely imbricate unaltered segments; pericarp stiffly membranous or somewhat hard. Seed conforming to the pericarp; testa thin; albumen absent; cotyledons broadly elliptic. —Succulent herbs or shrubs, often epiphytic. Leaves alternate as in the last genus, shortly stalked, in two rows, apex generally acuminate, base unequal, margin entire or slightly serrate, penninerved. Stipules intrapetiolar, entire. Inflorescences solitary or fascicled in the leaf-axils or at the nodes of fallen leaves.