Rounded shrub 1.5–3 m high, dioecious. Leaves shortly petiolate; thin, deltoid (or with rounded sides), sometimes very shortly hastate, entire or rarely slightly undulate; lamina 15–20 mm long, pale blueish grey, with scaly sheen on both surfaces. Male flowers in disjunct or continuous glomerules 2–3 mm diam. forming divaricately branched terminal panicles which usually bear a few female flowers towards their base. Female flowers in clusters in the small distal leaves or paniculate. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, leathery, rhomboid to fan-shaped, c. 3 mm long and wide, united only at the thickened base, entire or crenulate, eventually hard and much thickened all over, becoming ellipsoidal to broadly rhomboid, smooth. Seed circular with erect radicle.
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