Plants 20-50 cm tall. Woody branches gray-white, usually fissured annular, smooth, glabrous; annual branches gray-green, slightly ribbed. Leaves 0.5-1.5 cm × 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous, base decurrent, apex obtuse; leaf axil cottony. Bractlets suborbicular, slightly shorter than perianth, abaxially fleshy and convex at center, margin narrowly membranous. Wing of perianth segments horizontal or slightly reflexed, semiorbicular, dry membranous, margin entire or incised. Ovary smooth; stigma adaxially papillate. Pericarp black-brown, somewhat fleshy. Seed ca. 1.75 mm in diam.; testa yellow-brown, membranous. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.