Rounded shrub to 2 m. Leaves alternate, ovate to elliptic; lamina 0.5–1.5 cm long, glabrescent above, mealy below with minute irregularly-shaped hairs; petiole c. ½ length of lamina. Inflorescence spicate to paniculate with the flowers uninterrupted or (in N areas) a slender spike with disjunct glomerules. Perianth densely mealy. Male flowers caducous; perianth globular, c. 1.5 mm diam.; filaments united into a thick saucer-shaped disc, pubescent within. Female flower: perianth eventually hard and spreading beneath fruit, red above; staminodes present in terminal flower, absent in the others. Seed c. 1.3 mm diam.; testa reticulate.
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