Shrubs 1-4 m tall, erect; bark brownish, at first pubescent; branches angular, prominently lenticellate; ultimate branchlets spine-tipped, hirtellous, recurved. Stipules lanceolate, 0.7-2 mm; petiole 1-3 mm, hirtellous; leaf blade obovate, obdeltoid at tip with a minute apiculum in notch, 3-7 × 2-5 mm, papery, puberulent; lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs. Plants dioecious. Inflorescences axillary or clustered on short shoots, fascicled. Male flowers: pedicels slender, 4.5-7 mm; sepals 6, oblong or elliptic, 1.2-1.6 × 0.7-1.3 mm, margins irregularly denticulate; disk segments 6, angled, coherent; stamens 6; filaments 1.5-2 mm; anthers 0.6-1 mm; rudimentary ovary 2-3 mm high, 3-lobed to middle or beyond, lobes recurved. Female flowers: pedicels ca. 3 mm; sepals 5, obovate or elliptic, ca. 1 mm; ovary ovoid. Berry globose, 6-7 mm in diam., 3-locular. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Jun-Oct.