Shrub; twigs glabrous or adpressed-pubescent; bud-scales persistent. Leaves shortpetioled, membranous, ovate, acuminate, base wide-cuneate or rounded, margin faintly crenate, 2–2 1/2 in. long, 1–1 1/2 in. wide, medium green, paler beneath, glabrous when mature; petiole glabrous or adpressed-pubescent, 1/4 in. long; stipules unmodified, hyaline-scarious, minute. Flowers small, in peduncled racemes; peduncles slender, glabrous or adpressed-pubescent, males 3/4–1 in., females 1 1/2–2 in. long; pedicels glabrous, males up to 1/3 in., females 1/8 in. long. Male calyx green, glabrous, globose in bud; lobes 4, or occasionally 3, membranous. Stamens 24; outer 10, the rest central; filaments much shorter than the anthers; glands minute, hirsute, rhomboid, all inter-staminal. Female calyx deeply 2-lobed. Ovary glabrous, 2- (rarely 3-) celled; stigmas connate at the base, suborbicular, suberect, papillose. Disk shallow-urceolate, in flower subentire, in fruit shortly 5-lobed. Capsule usually 2-coccous, didymous, occasionally 3-coccous; cocci 1/4 in. across. Seeds with a reddish aril and a finely foveolate-reticulate testa.