Herbs perennial, monoecious or dioecious, 15-40 cm tall. Stems ascending or erect, simple, villous, brown furfuraceous. Leaves alternate; nanophylls absent; stipules lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 6-9 × 1.5-2 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulent, with cystoliths; petiole absent; leaf blade obliquely oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 6-10.5 × 1.2-2.2(-2.8) cm, herbaceous, major basal lateral veins absent and venation pinnate, abaxial surface villous along veins, adaxial surface sparsely pubescent, cystoliths conspicuous, dense; base with broader half cordate, margin denticulate, apex acuminate. Male inflorescences solitary, simple, ca. 9 mm in diam.; peduncle 6-10 mm; receptacle obscure; bracts connate, 3-6 mm, villous; bracteoles absent. Female inflorescences solitary or in pairs, 30-flowered or more, 2-8 mm in diam.; peduncle 1-3.5 mm; receptacle 2-7 mm in diam.; bracts triangular; bracteoles spatulate-linear. Male flowers 4- or 5-merous. Achenes ovoid, 8-ribbed. Fl. Mar-May.

Dark damp rocks along valley streamsides, forests; 400-1000 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Hubei, Hunan, SE Sichuan [N Vietnam].