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Herbs perennial or subshrubs, epiphytic or epilithic. 30-80 cm tall. Stems branched or simple, somewhat woody basally, succulent, many striate, glabrous. Leaves often on upper stems or branches, glabrous; stipules deciduous, ovate, very small; petiole 1.5-12 mm; leaf blade narrowly oblong, elliptic, or oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 8-20 × 2.2-4.5 cm, membranous or herbaceous, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, base attenuate or narrowly cuneate, margin crenate-serrate or undulate distally, apex acuminate; cystoliths slightly conspicuous or inconspicuous. Male inflorescences proximal to female ones, clusters often on leafless nodes, short and thinly pedunculate; female inflorescence an axillary cluster of 1-7 heads, each on a short and thick peduncle or sessile, globose, 2-4 mm in diam.; bracteoles obovate or elliptic, ca. 0.4 mm, glabrous. Male flowers 5-merous; perianth lobes oblong or ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, corniculate below apex. Female flowers sessile; perianth lobes often 4, ca. 3.5 mm, glabrous. Ovary ellipsoid, ca. 0.3 mm. Achene narrowly ovoid, compressed, 0.6-0.8 mm, often minutely punctate. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.
Leaves opposite and heteromorphous with the reduced leaves of heteromorphous pairs soon falling, usually concentrated in the upper half of the stem, petiolate; lamina up to 12 x 3 cm., somewhat asymmetrical around the midnerve, base asymmetrically cuneate, margin serrate, apex long acuminate, glabrous on both sides, lateral nerves 6–10 on either side of the midnerve.
Female inflorescences in the upper leaf-axils, on rather stout peduncles, 2–6 mm. long; receptacle fleshy with 20–50 sessile female flowers; female perianth of (4)5 short, broadly ovate tepals, these covering the lower part of the erect, symmetrical, ovoid ovary which is crowned by a penicillate stigma.
Male inflorescences rather rare, usually on the lower part of the plant;peduncles 5–10 mm. long, thin; receptacle small, fleshy, with 3–10 male flowers on 1–3 mm. long pedicels; male flowers (4)5-merous, with corniculate tepals, stamens equalling the tepals in number, ovary rudimentary.
Stems succulent, usually unbranched, up to c. 40(50) cm. tall, 1–2 cm. in diam. when fresh, shrinking to 4–5 mm. when dry.
Perennial monoecious herbs, from short, thick, prostrate, ± thickened rhizomes.
Achene 1–1.5 mm. long, surrounded at the base by the persistent perianth.
Inflorescences in the axils of current or fallen leaves, pedunculate.
Stipules fused, intrapetiolar, 1–3 mm. long.
Petioles 2–4 mm. long.
