Shrubs or small trees, 1.5-10 m tall. Branchlets and inflorescences hispid. Leaves opposite, each pair very unequal; stipules linear-lanceolate, ca. 1 cm, hispid, persistent; petiole 1-1.5 cm; larger leaves oblong-lanceolate, 8-16 × 2-6 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially hispid along midrib, base obtuse, sometimes with 2 glands, margins entire or repand-denticulate, apex acuminate; veins 8 or 9 pairs; smaller leaves subulate, 1-1.2 cm. Male inflorescences axillary, racemelike, 4-10 cm. Male flowers solitary or paired; bracts lanceolate, 4-5 mm; pedicel 4-5 mm; calyx lobes 4, elliptic, ca. 4 mm, purplish; stamens 60-70. Female inflorescences racemelike, 2-2.5 cm, 1-3-flowered; bracts lanceolate, 7-8 mm. Female flower: sepals 5, lanceolate, 5-7 mm, pilose; ovary pilosulose and softly spiny; styles 3, 1-2.5 cm, basally connate, long papillose. Fruiting pedicel 4-5 cm; capsule 3-locular, 1.2-1.4 cm in diam., pilosulose and densely softly spiny, spines filiform, ca. 3 mm. Seeds globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., brown marbled. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Jun-Dec.
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