Evergreen glabrous, large or small shrub; leaves alternate, vary variable, oblong to narrowly linear, variegated with white, yellow or red, entire or variously lobed, margins crisped or the whole leaf spirally twisted; flowers monoecious, usually unisexual in monoecious racemes; male and female racemes often in same axil; males small, fascicled, females solitary; in male flowers: calyx lobes 3-6, membranous, imbricate, petals minute alternating with disk glands; stamens 15-30, free or crowded on a low receptacle, anthers erect; pistillodes absent; in female flowers flowers: calyx 5-lobed; petals absent; disc subentire; ovary 3-celled, ovule 1 in each, glabrous, styles slender, recurved, entire, elongate; capsule globose; seeds brown variegated.