Monoecious or sometimes dioecious, prostrate, procumbent, scandent or erect, glabrous annual or perennial ± woody herb or slender many-stemmed subshrub up to 3 m. tall when supported.. Stems coarsely ridged or wrinkled, reddish-brown tinged, arching.. Orthotropic shoots ± quadrangular. Plagiotropic shoots 5–10(–23) cm. long, angular, smooth or occasionally slightly asperulous, Brachyblasts present, but usually not giving rise to secondary plagiotropic shoots.. Cataphylls lanceolate, ± 1 mm. long, reddish or brownish. Cataphyllary stipules triangular-lanceolate, 1.5 mm. long, acuminate, subentire to laciniate, subauriculate on the outer side, reddish or brownish.. Leaves of the plagiotropic shoots distichous; petioles 1(–1.5) mm. long; blades elliptic, elliptic-obovate or elliptic-oblong, (0.5–)1–2(–3.5) cm. long, (0.4–)0.7–1(–2) cm. wide, obtuse or rounded, mucronulate or not, rounded or rounded-cuneate, membranaceous, lateral nerves 7–11 pairs, not prominent above, slightly so beneath, dark green and shiny above, paler beneath, sometimes reddish tinged.. Stipules lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm. long, long-acuminate, entire to fimbriate, brownish or reddish.. Male flowers 3–4 per axil, usually in the lower two-thirds of the flowering shoots; ♀ usually solitary in the axils of the upper third; bracts resembling the stipules.. Male flowers: pedicels 1–1.5 mm. long; sepals 6, ovate, 1.5–2 mm. long, 1–1.2 mm. wide, obtuse, green or yellowish green with white or cream margins; disc-glands 6, free, ± circular, flat, conspicuously verruculose; stamens 3, 1 mm. long, filaments connate in the lower half, free and spreading above, anthers laterally held, transversely ovoid, 0.3 mm. across, horizontally dehiscent.. Female flowers: pedicels 2–4 mm. long, distally dilated; sepals 6, in two series, the 3 outer oblong, rounded, the 3 inner resembling these of ♂, green with white margins, sometimes pink tinged; disc conspicuous, thick, cupular, pectinate with 28–30 marginal teeth, enveloping half the ovary at first, but becoming ± flattened in fruit; ovary subsessile, hexalobate-subglobose, 0.75 mm. diameter, smooth; styles 0.5–0.7 mm. long, free, suberect at first, later spreading, bifid almost to halfway, stigmas filiform.. Fruit depressed-trilobate-subglobose, 1.8 mm. long, 2.5 mm. diameter, smooth, green, whitish, buff or brown.. Seeds triquetrous, 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. across, very faintly lineate, somewhat shiny, tawny-buff or beige.
Home