Shrubs, erect or spreading, or small trees, to 5 m tall, dioecious or androdioecious. Branches slender, puberulent when young, glabrous later. Stipules caducous, linear; petiole 1-6 cm; leaf blade suborbicular, 0.8-12 × 1-10 cm, papery or membranous, abaxially puberulent, adaxially glabrous or puberulent, primary veins 5-13, base truncate or shallowly cordate, apex bifid to ca. 1/2, lobes rounded at apex. Inflorescence a raceme, to 50-flowered, sometimes much condensed, terminal; bracts caducous, linear. Flower buds ellipsoid, puberulent. Hypanthium turbinate, short. Calyx open as a spathe into 2 lobes. Petals white, obovate to oblanceolate, 7-8 mm, shortly clawed. Male flowers: fertile stamens 10 in 2 whorls; filaments 5-6 mm; reduced ovary small. Female flowers: reduced stamens 10; ovary hairy, shortly stalked; style stout; stigma peltate. Legume elliptic to oblanceolate, compressed, leathery, puberulent or nearly glabrous, dehiscent. Seeds 2-7, suborbicular, compressed. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Oct.
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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