Shrubs or trees, 1.5-4(-6) m tall. Young branches straight, not pendulous, hard in texture. Leaves gray-green, 2-3 mm, base turgid; those in lower part of growing branches broadly ovate, apex acute; those in upper part ovate-lanceolate, apex acute. Flowers blooming in spring, summer, and autumn. When blooming in spring, racemes lateral in ligneous branches of previous year; inflorescence axis straight, ascending, 3-4 × ca. 0.5 cm, hard in texture, densely flowered; peduncles short or absent; bracts whitish or purple-green, linear-lanceolate; pedicels very short. When blooming in summer and autumn, racemes smaller than those in spring, forming terminal large panicles on young branches of current year, mostly straight and ascending; flowers 5-merous; sepals 5, green, ovate, margin membranous and pellucid, apex acute; petals 5, purplish red, obovate-oblong, apex reflexed, persistent after anthesis; disk purple-red, 5-lobed; lobes emarginate at apex; stamens 5, exserted; filaments filiform, inserted between disk lobes; anthers red; ovary triqueter-ovoid, red; styles ca. as long as ovary; stigmas 3, recurved. Capsule narrowly conic, ca. 5 mm. Fl. May-Sep.
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