Scepa Lindley.

Trees or shrubs, dioecious, rarely monoecious; indumentum of simple hairs. Leaves alternate; stipules caducous; petiole apex usually glandular; leaf blade simple, margin entire or sparsely denticulate, venation pinnate. Inflorescences axillary, solitary or clustered spikes or racemes, many flowered, male inflorescences longer than female, bracteate; pedicels short. Male flowers apetalous, without disk; sepals 3-6, nearly equal, membranous, imbricate; stamens 2 or 3, rarely 5 or 8; filaments free, as long as or longer than sepals; anthers small, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode very small or absent. Female flowers: sepals 3-6, shorter than ovary; ovary 2(-4)-locular; ovules 2 per locule; styles 2(-4), apex shallowly bifid, rarely papillate or fringed. Fruit a drupelike capsule, irregularly dehiscent when mature and dry, 1- or 2-seeded. Seeds not strophiolate; endosperm fleshy; cotyledon flattened and broad. x = 13.

About 80 species: India and Sri Lanka to SW China, Indonesia, and Malaysia; four species in China.

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