Exocarpos

Bisexual or dioecious (E. acerbus) shrubs or trees, rarely prostrate; branches terete or angular, glabrous, pubescent or scabrous. Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite, persistent or caducous, usually small and scale-like, often larger on young stems. Inflorescence an axillary spike or cluster (only 1 or 2 upper flowers in each inflorescence producing fruit). Flowers minute, mostly bisexual, sessile or subsessile, greenish-yellow, sometimes tinged red; tepals 4 or 5, free, persistent or caducous; stamens 4 or 5, inserted near base of tepals, often incurved over style; ovary superior or inferior (E. acerbus), conical, fleshy, stigma sessile or subsessile, often lobed. Fruit a drupe or nut, more or less globose, on an enlarged succulent receptacle or receptacle neither enlarged nor succulent (E. acerbus); exocarp thin, green or brown.