Glabrous shrub, stems spreading or erect, sometimes scandent or trailing, to 3 m, [in the Philippines and New Guinea, this species becomes a climbing shrub, rather than scrambling or trailing], monoecious [plants may appear to be dioecious, as the different sexes open sequentially and the branchlets are often found with open flowers of one sex only]. Stipules triangular, 1–3 mm long. Branch leaves triangular, c. 1 mm long. Branchlet leaves: petiole 2–8 mm long; lamina narrowly ovate, 20–80 mm long, 8.5–25 mm wide, obtuse or subacute, discolorous. Inflorescences androgynous glomerules; peduncles to 4 mm long. Male flowers: pedicels 2.5–5 mm long; calyx discoid, 4–7 mm diam., 6-lobed; lobes obtuse, green, each with a basal scale; stamens with filaments shortly connate at base; anthers vertical. Female flowers: pedicels 3.5–7 mm long; sepals obovate, 4–5 mm long, 3–3.5 mm wide, obtuse, connate at base, accrescent to 8 mm long, red; ovary c. 2 mm diam.; stigmatic branches coiled. Fruit a subglobose berry, 12–15 mm diam., 3-lobed, apically depressed, white–cream. Seeds prismatic, 5–7 mm long, grey, smooth. [See also Du Puy & Telford (1993: 263).]
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A shrub. It grows 1-3 m tall. The leaves are oval and 4-5 cm long See Sauropus androgynus.
Cultivated for its edible leaves and fruit. The leaves taste sweet and are used as spinach by both the Chinese and Malay communities on Christmas Island and the Cocos Malay community. The fruits are used to prepare a sweetmeat on Java. A decoction of the roots may be used medicinally against fever and the roots and leaves are sometimes pounded for use as a poultice.
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