Plants short-lived perennial, gla-brous, rarely pubescent, glaucous; taproot stout; caudex woody. Stems several–many, erect, branched and decumbent at base, rarely simple, 20–80 cm. Leaves mainly cauline, 2 per node, sessile, almost clasping, reduced proximal to inflorescence, blade broadly oblong to oblanceolate or lanceolate, rarely ± linear, 2–8 cm × 5–30 mm, base round, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences open dichasial cyme, 5–40-flowered, bracteate; bracts much-reduced, lanceolate. Pedicels 0.5–3 cm. Flowers bisexual and unisexual, some plants having bisexual flowers, others having pistillate unisexual flowers, 15–20 mm diam.; calyx pale green, rarely purplish, campanulate, not contracted at mouth or base, inflated, 9–12 mm in flower, 12–18 × 7–11 mm in fruit, herbaceous, papery, venation obscure, reticulate, without conspicuous pale commissures, margins dentate, lobes broadly triangular, 2–3 mm, glabrous; petals white, ca. 2 times as long as calyx; limb obovate, emarginate to 2-lobed; stamens exserted by 2–4 mm; styles 3, cream to greenish, at most slightly pink tinged, 2 times longer than calyx. Capsules ovoid to globose, equaling calyx, opening by 6 teeth; carpophore 2–3 mm. Seeds black or nearly so, globose-reniform, 1–1.5 mm, finely tuberculate. 2n = 24.
