Shrubs dioecious, 1.5-2 m tall, spinose, much branched. Branchlets opposite or subopposite, purple-brown, puberulent when young, later glabrescent, slightly shiny, silvery-gray, terminating in a spine; buds ovoid, ca. 2 mm, scales few, yellow-brown. Leaves opposite or subopposite, rarely alternate, or fascicled on short shoots; stipules subulate, puberulent; petiole 4-15 mm, adaxially puberulent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, gray-white when dry, adaxially dark green, rhombic-obovate or rhombic-elliptic, rarely obovate-orbicular or suborbicular, 1.2-4 × 0.8-2(-3) cm, papery, abaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulent in areoles of vein axils, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent, lateral veins 2-4 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base cuneate or subrounded, margin crenate-dentate, apex obtuse or subrounded, rarely acute. Flowers yellow-green, unisexual, 4-merous, usually few clustered on short shoots. Pedicels 4-6 mm, glabrous. Female flowers: style 2-cleft to half. Drupe nearly dry, black at maturity, obovoid-globose, 4-5 mm in diam., with 2 stones, with persistent calyx tube at base. Seeds brown, oblong-obovoid, abaxially with a yellow margined lateral furrow extending over 4/5 of length. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Sep.
Thickets, grasslands, stony slopes, on open shiny rocks; at elevations from 400-2,300 metres. Bare, exposed, rocky slopes.
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