Perennial, dioecious plant. Branches opposite, woody, brittle, terete. Leaves up to 5 x 0.5-1.5 cm., short-petioled, fleshy-leathery, oblong, tapering at base, obtuse, obscurely 3-nerved. Flowers usually 2-4 at each node, short-pedicelled or subsessile, green. Staminate flowers with 4 sepals up to 9 mm. long and without corolla; stamens 4, with linear-lanceolate, many-celled anthers, concreseent with calyx lobes. Pistillate flowers 1-2 mm.; calyx obsoletely 4-dentate; corolla of 4 scaly petals. Berry 4-6 mm. in diam., globular, umbonate, red, viscid. 2n = 20. Fl. February-May (-September).