Climbing shrubs, deciduous, dioecious or polygamo-dioecious. Leaves alternate, thin or subcoriaceous; stipules minute, deciduous, sometimes absent, deeply serrate. Flowers small, whitish-green, in terminal or axillary racemes or paniculate cymes, 4-5-merous. Male flowers: stamens 4-5, about as long as the petals, inserted on the edge of the disc with a vistigial pistil. Female flowers: staminodes 4-5, ovary 2-4-lobed, 2-4-celled; ovules 1-2 in each cell. Capsule 3-celled, dehiscing by 3 valves; seeds 1-2 in each cell, each enclosed in a fleshy red aril.

A tropical and a subtropical genus of about 30 species, mostly in N. America, Asia, Madagascar and Australia. One species has been reported from Pakistan.

Lower Taxon

• Celastrus paniculatus Willd.