Perennial herb from a woody rhizome. Stems erect or ascending sometimes scrambling, up to c. 1 m. tall, slightly woody at the base, up to c. 5 cm. in diam., covered by a dense indumentum of short, erect hairs, bark greyish brown; ± prostrate stems often rooting at the nodes. Leaves alternate, 4–8(10) x 3–5 cm., ovate to lanceolate; apex acuminate; base cuneate, rounded, or subcordate; margin coarsely serrate; upper surface of lamina with scattered, stiff hairs and punctiform cystoliths, lower surface glabrescent with softer hairs on the nerves. Petiole pubescent, up to 7 cm. long. Stipules lanceolate, up to 7 mm. long. Inflorescences of densely clustered flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, bracts narrowly triangular. Male flowers numerous, pedicels c. 1.5 mm. long; perianth globose, c. 1 mm. in diam., 3–4-merous, vestigial ovary present. Female flowers fewer, sessile; perianth c. 2 mm. long, with 10 faint longitudinal lines; ovary enclosed, stigma erect, 2–4 mm. long, filiform, exserted. Achene c. 2.5 mm. long, shiny, white, enclosed in the persistent perianth.