Perennial shrubs, monoecious or dioecious, often woody at base; stems rigid, erect or procumbent, often more or less leafless. Leaves, when present, alternate, simple, margins entire or toothed, often revolute; stipules small. Inflorescences of axillary sessile clusters surrounded by small scarious bracts; male flowers often numerous; female flower usually solitary (rarely to 3), alone or surrounded by males. Male flowers with 3–5(–6) sepals; petals absent; stamens twice as many as sepals or fewer, free or united at the base, anthers mostly 2-celled, dehiscing long-itudinally. Female flowers usually with 5 sepals; petals absent; ovary 3-celled, ovules 1 per cell, styles 3, free, more or less bifid. Fruit a capsule, crowned by a ring of 6 erect tooth-like appendages, separating into three 2-valved mericarps; seeds 1–3, ovoid-oblong, smooth or rugulose, with a caruncle.