Plants 10-30 cm tall. Stems in clusters, unbranched or with a few branches, slender, terete, 1-1.5 mm thick, glabrous. Flowers mostly unisexual, less often bisexual (plants dioecious or monoecious), in dense, elongated clusters; bracts imbricate when young, semiorbicular to suborbicular, small, ca. 0.5 mm, apex sometimes acute; bracteoles inconspicuous or absent; involucre absent. Male flowers: perianth tube whitish, lobes 5, triangular, distinct from discs. Stamens 5; filaments very short: anthers small. Discs nearly flat, shallowly divided. Female and bisexual flowers: perianth ellipsoid, lobes 5(or 6), triangular, 1.5-2 mm. Style short terete; stigmas truncate or slightly oblong-scutiform. Drupe ovoid-ellipsoid, 8-9 × 2.5-3 mm, widest at base, gradually narrowing to apex, endocarp 5- or 6-furrowed. Seed ellipsoid. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Oct-Feb.

This species is usually epiparasitic on stems of Taxillus chinensis, Macrosolen bibracteolatus, and Helixanthera parasitica, among others.

Forests; ca. 1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Vietnam].