Plants perennial, with several-many decumbent, sometimes cespitose or matted shoots; taproot slender. Stems decumbent to erect, simple or branched, leafy throughout, 5-30(-70) cm, usually glandular-puberulent distally, proximal pubescence varying from short and sparse to multicellular, crinkled and deflexed, glandular or not. Leaves 2 per node, sessile or short-petiolate; blade usually oblanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, rarely obovate or elliptic, 2-6(-10) cm × 3-20(-35) mm, broadest at or above middle, narrowed to base, margins ciliate with short, somewhat scabrid hairs, apex acute to acuminate, puberulent to pubescent. Inflorescences cymose, or flowers axillary or solitary and terminal; cyme loose, compound, leafy. Pedicels slender, 0.5-3 cm, glandular-puberulent. Flowers functionally unisexual, usually bisexual; calyx obscurely 10-veined, campanulate, 5-8 mm, ca. 1/ 2 as wide, herbaceous, margins dentate, lobes lanceolate, 1.5-3 mm, apex recurved, subacute to acuminate, puberulent to pilose and glandular, veins without conspicuous, pale commissures; corolla white, clawed, 1-11/ 2 times calyx, claw shorter than calyx, limb oblong, 2-lobed, 1.5-3 mm, lobes oblong, apex obtuse, appendages 2, small, 0.1-0.4 mm; stamens in functionally staminate flowers equaling corolla, otherwise reduced and included in calyx; stigmas 3(-4), equaling corolla in functionally pistillate flowers, otherwise included in calyx, papillate along whole length. Capsules green, becoming black, ovoid-ellipsoid, slightly longer than calyx, opening by 3 erect teeth which often split into 6; carpophore ca. 1.5 mm. Seeds black, not winged, broadly reniform, 0.5-1 mm, glossy, obscurely reticulate. 2n = 24, 48.
Home