Bush or tree, up to 15 m high, glabrous; dioecious; older twigs 5-15 mm thick sometimes with conspicuous lenticels; scale-leaves on permanent branches ? deciduous, blackish, indurate, ca 1.5 mm long. Deciduous branchlets 1-3 dm long, 1.3-1.8 mm thick, with ca 10-20 leaves, the median internodes ca 1-1.5 cm long. Leaves chartaceous; petioles 2.5-3.5 mm long; stipules lanceolate, blackish-brown, 0.8-1.2 mm long; blades mostly broadly elliptic to suborbicular, rather abruptly pointed, 3-5(-7) cm long, 2-4(-5) cm broad. Thyrsiform inflorescences naked, clustered on spur-shoots; staminate axes mostly 1.5-7 cm long, the cymules with 10-20 flowers; pistillate axes mostly 3-6 cm long, the cymules with 1-4 flowers. Staminate flowers with calyx-lobes 4, 1-1.7 mm long; disc absent; stamens usually 4, the filaments free, ca 0.25 mm, the anthers dehiscing vertically; pollen grains 3-colporate. Pistillate flowers with pedicels 1-3 mm long; calyx-lobes 4, 0.8-1.3 mm long; disc absent; ovary of 3 (rarely 2) carpels, the styles connate at base, distally bifid, 1.8-2.3 mm long. Fruits oblate-spheroidal, usually 3-celled, 5-8.5 mm high, 5.5-10.5 mm broad, obtusely lobed, indehiscent, the outer layer soft and pithy, the inner hard and bony, fertile carpels usually 1 or 2 per fruit, each with 1 seed; seeds flattened, smooth, pale brown, ca 3-4 mm long.
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