Shrubs 1-4 m tall; branches usually gray-white, with dense elevated lenticels, glabrous. Buds perulate. Petiole 0.5-2(-3) cm; leaf blade very variable in shape, ovate-lanceolate, obovate, or oblong to long lanceolate, 4-18 × 1-6 cm, papery or submembranous, both surfaces glabrous, base attenuate, broadly cuneate, or obtuse, margin entire, apex acute to long acuminate; lateral veins 6-12. Plants monoecious. Male inflorescence racemose, peduncle 2-8 cm, rachis much shorter; female inflorescence umbel-like, sometimes from base of male peduncle, peduncle 1-2 cm. Male flowers often in pairs; pedicel 8-20 mm; sepals rotund, ca. 2 mm; petals broadly obovate, apex truncate or retuse, 1-2 mm, yellow; disk glands broad and flat; stamens ca. 15. Female flowers: pedicels 5-10 mm; sepals ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 mm, accrescent, clavate; disk glands 4 or 5; ovary globose, glabrous; styles 3, bipartite, lobes linear. Capsule subglobose, slightly depressed, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., glabrous. Seeds ovoid to broadly ellipsoidal, ca. 5.5 × 4.5 mm, black with dense paler blotches. Fl. and fr. almost throughout year.
Home