A small erect shrub usually growing in swamps; stems and branches covered with dark-coloured lenticellate bark, glabrous or slightly pubescent; young branchlets leafy, pubescent. Leaves deciduous, oblanceolate, mostly subacute, attenuated to the base, 3/4–2 1/2 in. long, 1/5– 3/4 in. broad, entire or shortly serrate in the upper half or towards the tip, thinly chartaceous, with a few golden glands on the lower surface when young, pubescent on both surfaces; lateral nerves numerous and rather delicate, diverging from the midrib at a wide angle; petiole about 1 lin. long; perulæ scaly, persistent or subpersistent, ovate or lanceolate, subacute, up to 2 lin. long, venose, glabrous or nearly so. Flowers diœcious. Male spikes numerous, produced before the leaves, 1/2– 3/4 in. long, dense-flowered; bracts imbricate, conspicuous, very broadly ovate, subacutely mucronate, about 1 1/4 lin. long and broad, scaly, shining outside, very shortly ciliolate, glabrous or nearly so outside; stamens 3–6, usually 4; anthers small, nearly 1/3 lin. long. Female spikes racemosely arranged on the previous season's shoots, sessile, dense-flowered, 1/3– 1/2 in. long at the time of flowering, at length (in fruit) a little longer; bracts similar to those of the male but much smaller; ovary narrowly ovoid; style-branches spreading, slender. Fruits 3-lobed, lobes in the same plane, acute, furnished towards the base and between the lobes with numerous resinous glands, otherwise smooth, about 1 lin. long.