hrub 2-4 m high; monoecious; stems glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Leaves chartaceous; petioles 0.5-2 cm long; stipules lanceolate, subulate-acuminate, sub-indurate, distinctly convex at base, glabrate, (2.5-)4-8 mm long; blades elliptic to ovate-or obovate-lanceolate, (5-)8-15 cm long, (2-)2.5-6(-8) cm broad, ? glabrate except along the veins and minutely pustulate, pinnately veined (veins ca 5-7 on a side), the base narrowed, obtuse or subcordate, the margins crenate-serrate (teeth ca 20-40 on a side), the teeth sometimes callose, the apex abruptly acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, spicate; spikes sessile, bisexual, with 1 or 2 up to 6 9 bracts at the base, or entirely c; c spikes (or parts of spikes) ca 3-8 cm long, loosely to densely flowered, 1.5-4 mm thick. Pistillate flowers sessile, 2-3 per bract; bracts more or less ovate, ca 3-4.5 mm long and broad, shallowly 6-8-toothed (typically with 1 large central acute lobe and 2 or 3 much smaller lateral teeth), nearly or quite glabrous, foliaceous in fruit; ovary densely hispidulous-muriculate, the styles free, erect, slightly hispidulous at base, ca 1.5-2 mm long, divided in the distal half into a number of slender lobes. Capsules verruculose-hispidulous, 2.2-2.3 mm diam; seeds ellipsoidal, indistinctly beaked, grayish, nearly smooth (minutely foveolate), ca 1.2-1.5 mm long, the caruncle not well-defined.
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