Shrubs, 10–20(–35) dm, polygamodioecious; rhizomatous in sandy soil. Stems 1–20+, spreading-ascending; bark brown, ?with age separating in papery sheets?; long and short shoots present; young stems whitish, hirtellous to villous, also stellate-lepidote with white to rust orange trichomes. Leaves deciduous, cauline, ?abscising distal to persistent, clasping bases, crowded on short shoots?, simple; stipules adnate, acicular, reduced on short-shoot leaves, margins entire; petiole present; blade obovate to oblanceolate or linear, ?1–2-pinnately lobed?, 0.4–3 cm, leathery, margins revolute, entire, venation pinnate, surfaces hirtellous, villous, orange-lepidote throughout, abaxially densely so, glabrescent. Inflorescences terminal ?on long shoots of season?, 1–7-flowered, loose corymbose racemes; bracts present, reduced; bracteoles present ?often linear-acicular or with reduced, paired, basal lobes borne at pedicel base?. Pedicels present. Flowers all pistillate, all staminate, or staminate with terminal one bisexual, 20–35(–42) mm diam.; epicalyx bractlets 5, ?entire or 3-toothed?; hypanthium broadly funnelform, 2.5–3.5 mm, exterior rusty lepidote-stellate and villose-pilose, interior densely hirsute; sepals 5, ascending, broadly ovate to suborbiculate; petals 5, white (to pinkish), oblong-obovate to suborbiculate; stamens (24–)50–95(–120), shorter than petals, ?anthers fertile in staminate flowers, sterile in pistillate flowers?; torus ovoid-cylindric; carpels (24–)50–95(–120), reduced in staminate flowers, sericeous; ovules 2. Fruits aggregated achenes, (24–)50–95(–120), compressed, fusiform, 1–2.5 mm, sericeous; hypanthium persistent; sepals persistent, spreading; ?torus elongating?; styles persistent, greatly elongating, ?filiform, plumose?. x = 14.
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