Monoecious, erect, glabrous or sparingly minutely papillose perennial herb 2 dm. tall, with the orthotropic stems arising caespitosely at intervals from a thick woody creeping rhizome.. Orthotropic stems angular, with leaves or cataphylls. Plagiotropic shoots up to 6 cm. long.. Cataphylls linear, 2 mm. long. Cataphyllary stipules narrowly triangular-lanceolate, 2 mm. long, subentire, pale green.. Leaves of the plagiotropic shoots with petioles 1 mm. long; blades elliptic-obovate, (0.6–)1–1.5 cm. long, 0.5–1 cm. wide, obtuse or rounded, mucronulate, rounded-cuneate, membranaceous, lateral nerves 4–6 pairs, not prominent above, slightly so beneath, deep green above, glaucous beneath.. Stipules linear-lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm. long, aristate, entire, pale pink.. Male flowers few, solitary or paired in the lower axils of some flowering shoots, ♀ solitary in the upper or in all axils.. Male flowers pendulous, campanulate; pedicels capillary, 2 mm. long; sepals 6, ovate-elliptic, 1.5 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, obtuse or rounded, yellow-green; disc-glands 6, free, ± discoid, verruculose; stamens 3, the filaments connate into a column 1.5 mm. high, anthers sessile, dithecous, the thecae vertical, longitudinally dehiscent.. Female flowers erect or ascending; pedicels shorter and slightly more robust than in ♂; sepals 6, elliptic, 2–2.5 mm. long, 1–1.25 mm. wide, subacute or obtuse, blue-green with white margins; disc sloped, 6-lobed, the lobes ± rounded, shallowly verruculose; ovary stipitate, subglobose, 1.5 mm. diameter, smooth or almost so; styles very shortly connate or almost free at the base, 0.75 mm. long, suberect or somewhat divaricate, bifid, the stigmatic lobes recurved.. Fruit depressed-trilobate-subglobose, 1.5 mm. long, 2 mm. diameter, smooth, olivaceous.. Seeds triquetrous, 1 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, ochreous, with a dark brown shallow depression above the hilum, with 12–14 longitudinal ridges on the dorsal facet, and 10–12 concentric arcs on each ventral facet, with innumerable transverse striae in the grooves between the ridges and arcs.. Fig. 3/7, p. 22.
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