Shrub 4–7 ft. high; twigs reddish-brown, glabrous. Leaves short-petioled, rather firmly membranous, ovate-oblong, acute or shortly acuminate, base rounded, 2-glandular, margin remotely crenate-toothed or nearly entire, 3–5 in. long, 1 1/4–2 1/4 in. wide, rather pale green especially beneath, glabrous on both surfaces; lateral nerves 5–6 pairs, ascending; petiole glabrous, 1/8– 1/3 in. long; stipules subulate, 2 1/2 lin. long. Flowers in lateral diœcious filiform spikes, leaf-opposed or on nodes below the leaves, 2–6 in. long; rhachis green, faintly trigonous, rather rigid, glabrous; bracts rigid, lanceolate, 1–3 lin. apart; bracteoles of male racemes scarious, numerous to each bract, enveloping the pedicels of the numerous flowers which open singly and quickly disarticulate and disappear, bracteoles of female racemes 2 to a bract, subtending solitary flowers; pedicels articulate, of male flowers 1 lin. long, flattened below the joint with their angles minutely ciliolate, of female flowers ultimately 2 lin. long. Male calyx white, glabrous, ovoid-globose in bud; lobes 2–3, dividing half-way or rather lower. Stamens 21–24; filaments rather long, free, glabrous, mixed with as many ovoid receptacular glands, hirsute at the top with long hairs, or glabrous. Female sepals 5, free, ovate, acute, their margins ciliolate, otherwise glabrous. Ovary glabrous, 3-celled; stigmas 3, linear, plumosely fimbriate at the apex only. Disk of 6 free but contiguous short broad scales. Capsule pale straw-colour, 3-coccus; cocci separating septicidally.
