Shrubs, rarely trees, dioecious, to 2 m tall, very spinose. Young branches brown or purple-brown, smooth, glabrous; branchlets alternate, terminating in a spine. Leaves alternate or fascicled on short shoots; stipules subulate, caducous; petiole 3-15 mm, glabrous or puberulent; leaf blade abaxially brownish, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly obovate, 3-5 cm × 3-10 mm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, venation abaxially distinctly prominent, adaxially inconspicuous, base cuneate, margin remotely serrulate, apex acute or obtuse. Flowers yellow-green, unisexual, 4-merous. Pedicels ca. 5 mm, glabrous. Petals present. Male flowers few-to 20-fascicled on short shoots, broadly campanulate; sepals subequal to calyx tube. Female flowers: sepals narrowly lanceolate, ca. 2 × as long as calyx tube, with rudimentary stamens; ovary 2-or 3-loculed; styles 2(or 3)-fid or cleft to half. Drupe black at maturity, globose, 5-6 mm in diam., usually 2(or 3) stones, with persistent calyx tube at base; fruiting pedicel 6-8 mm. Seeds pale brown, obovoid, 3-4 mm, abaxially with narrow margined furrow extending over 4/5 of length. Fl. May, fr. Jun-Jul.
Thickets, hills, open slopes, stony and rocky slopes, dry sands; at elevations from 1,000-2,100 metres.
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