Herbs, perennial, sprawling or twining; stems to 2 m, branched, quadrangular, glabrous and smooth or sparsely retrorsely aculeolate. Leaves and leaflike stipules in whorls of never more than 4; petiole (1-)2-4(-6) mm; blade when drying blackening, subleathery, lower side somewhat brighter than upper, linear-lanceolate, lanceolate, or lanceolate-oblong, often somewhat falcate, 20-40 × 2-8 mm, base cuneate to acute, margins and vein adaxially somewhat retrorsely aculeolate or smooth, apex acute or shortly acuminate; principal vein 1, 2 basal lateral veins very weak, often hardly visible. Inflorescences thyrsoid, with axillary, somewhat narrowly elongate, many-flowered cymes; peduncles glabrous, 3-6 mm; bracts small, linear-lanceolate, 0.5-3 mm; pedicels 1-6 mm. Ovary inferior, obovoid, ca. 0.8 mm. Corolla yellowish green, white, or purple, rotate, fused part 0.2-0.5 mm; lobes 5, ovate-triangular, 1.2-1.5 mm, shortly acuminate. Mericarp berry blackening, globose, 3-5 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.
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