Description from Flora of China
Dupinia Scopoli; Hoferia Scopoli; Mokof Adanson; Mokofua Kuntze; Taonabo Aublet.
Shrubs or trees, evergreen, androdioecious. Leaves alternate but often clustered at apex of branchlets and pseudoverticillate, margin entire or rarely serrate, petiolate. Flowers axillary, solitary or frequently several clustered on leafless branchlets, pedicellate. Bracteoles 2, alternate to subopposite, close to sepals, persistent or caducous. Sepals 5, imbricate, persistent or rarely caducous, margin glandular dentate, basally ± connate. Petals 5, imbricate, basally slightly connate. Stamens 30-50, in 1 or 2 whorls; filaments short and adnate to base of petals; anthers basifixed, oblong, glabrous, connective exserted. Ovary superior, 2-4(or 5)-loculed with 2(-5) ovules per locule, placentation axile; style 1, apically 2(-4)-lobed. Fruit baccate, indehiscent or irregularly dehiscent with seeds dangling and probably dispersed by birds. Seeds reniform, slightly compressed, with a fleshy red outer layer; endosperm abundant.
About 90 species: tropical and subtropical Africa, America, and Asia; 13 species (ten endemic) in China.