Description: Trees, shrubs, epiphytes [or climber], usually monoecious.
Leaves palmately compound [or 1-foliolate, occasionally heteromorphic]; stipules fused, ligulate.
Inflorescence terminal, compound umbels or panicles. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, aggregated into umbels or solitary, pedicellate or sessile; pedicels not articulating with the ovary base. Calyx minutely toothed or an entire rim. Petals [4,] 5 [–7 or more], valvate. Stamens [4,] 5 [–numerous]. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, usually 5–20 locular; styles as many as ovary loculi, free to variously fused or absent with sessile stigma, persistent.
Fruit a fleshy drupe.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 700 species, tropical & subtropical regions of Africa, South-East Asia, Australia, Pacific & South America. Australia: 3 species (native), Qld, N.S.W., N.T.
Text by M. J. Henwood & R. O. Makinson