Flora of New Zealand Series

Fls minute, perfect to unisexual, in small axillary spikes or clusters, each in notch of axis or subtended by a minute bract. Per. inferior, divided to base into 4-6-valvate tepals; stamens inserted near base of tepals on very short broad filaments. Disk flat, sinuately 4-6-lobed. Ovary superior, ± fleshy, conical. Fr. us. nutlike on enlarged pedicel. Shrubs or small trees with us. alt., often scalelike lvs. Some 16 spp. of Australia, Malaya, Polynesia, Madagascar; the N.Z. sp. endemic.

Gagnepain and Boureau (Bull. Soc. bot. Fr. 93, 1946, 313; 94, 1947, 182) place the genus in the Gymnospermae.