Shrubs to trees, dioecious; indumentum usually absent. Leaves alternate, spirally arranged; stipules broad, caducous; petiole short; leaf blade simple, thinly leathery, margin entire, venation pinnate. Inflorescences axillary, on leafless axillary shoots, shoots slender, spikelike, often branched. Male flowers in fascicles: sepals 5, imbricate; petals absent; disk segments 5, small, alternating with sepals; stamens 5; filaments free; anthers extrorse, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode 2- or 3-lobed. Female flowers in short racemes; pedicels very short; sepals 5, imbricate; petals absent; disk annular; ovary 3-locular; ovules 2 per locule; styles 3, free, apex shallowly bifid. Fruit a capsule, 3-lobed, dehiscent into 3 2-valved cocci; exocarp papery, distinct from endocarp. Seeds without caruncle; hilum hollow; endosperm thin; cotyledons flattened and broad.

Molecular analysis shows Richeriella, though superficially very different in inflorescence structure, to be nested within Flueggea.

About two species: China, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand; one species in China.

(Authors: Li Bingtao (李秉滔 Li Ping-tao); Michael G. Gilbert)