Nyssaceae

Dioecious trees or shrubs. Leaves simple, scattered. Stipules O. Flowers unisexual, often in heads, in the axils of a bract and with 2 bracteoles. ♂: in axillary heads or short racemes; calyx entire or 5-toothed; petals 5, imbricate, often small, alternate with the calyx; stamens 8-16 in 2 alternating whorls; anthers small, dorsifixed with lateral lengthwise slits; disk pulvinate; style rudimentary. ♀: solitary, axillary or in 2-10-flowered heads; ovary inferior, 1-locular, connate with the 5-toothed or entire calyx; petals 5-8 often minute; stamens of inner whorl partly sterile, both petals and anthers soon dropping; style with 2 appressed later divergent often torulose branches stigmatose on their inside, brittle, often deficient in the herbarium. Ovule 1, hanging from the apex of the cell, anatropous with 2 integuments. Fruit drupaceous ovoid to oblong. Distr. Ca 6 spp., 4 in Atlantic N. America, 1 in China, 1 from India to W. Malaysia.