A weak herb with slender elongated creeping stems up to 1 ft. or even 3 ft. in length, hirtellous as are the shorter (4–8 in. long) ascending branches; lower internodes 3/4 to 1 1/2 in. long, the few uppermost short, the leaves being aggregated at the end of the shoot. Leaves opposite, very shortly stalked, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, extreme apex blunt, base rounded to blunt, margin above base crenate-serrate, 1 1/4–1 1/2 in. long, 3–7 lin. wide, or even smaller on the branchlets, 3-nerved, membranous when dry, sparsely hairy on both faces, dotted above with minute cystoliths; petiole 1 lin. or less in length. Stipules ovate, free or united in the lower part beneath the petiole, scarious, ciliate, nearly 2 lin. or less in length. Male cymules on a peduncle 2–3 times as long as the petiole; flowers few, sessile; perianth about 1/2 lin. long with a funnel-shaped tube, obscurely 2-lipped, the inner lobe almost obsolete, the outer broad, abruptly acuminate and erect, ciliate on midvein and margin. Female flowers generally in a connate pair, sessile; perianth sac-like, constricted above to an obtuse bluntly 4–5-toothed mouth, puberulous; style filiform, projecting. Achene ovoid, fuscous; pericarp thin.
