From the Greek glochis — a projecting point, referring to the form of the style.

Shrubs or trees, evergreen or semi-deciduous, perennial, male and female flowers on the same plant or male and female flowers on separate plants; stems and foliage without latex. Indumentum of simple, multicellular hairs. Stipules entire, inconspicuous, persistent. Leaves alternate (arranged distichously on branches), stalked, unlobed, penninerved, without glands; margins entire. Inflorescences axillary, fasciculate with 1-several flowers.male flowers stalked; calyx lobes 3, overlapping, free and more or less equal; petals 3; disk absent; stamens 3-8, filaments fused into column. Female flowers stalked; calyx lobes 2-3, overlapping, free; petals 3; disk absent; ovary 3-15-chambered, ovules 2 per chamber; styles 2 or 3, united into a cone or column. Fruits capsular, dehiscent, depressed-roundish, multilobed, surface smooth. Seeds shaped like a segment of a sphere, ecarunculate.

Around 300 species in the tropics, with about 15 species in Australia.

Seeds.

Foliage distichous; flowers without disk, styles 2 or 3 and united into cone or column.

Airy Shaw (1980).

Source: Forster, P. (2002). Euphorbiaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.