A small shrub, commonly (0.6-) 1-1.5 m, occasionally up to 2.5 m tall. Young shoots very sparingly pubescent to subglabrous, soon glabrescent. Petioles 0.5-2.5 (-4) cm, Leaf-blade triangular-ovate to elliptic-ovate, (1-) 2-5 (-8) x (0.5-) 1-2 (-4) cm, rounded to emarginate and often mucronulate, rounded-cuneate, truncate or shallowly cordate, thinly membranous, lateral nerves 3-8 pairs, looped within the margin, not or scarcely prominent above, slightly so beneath, glabrous above, sparingly to evenly pubescent beneath, medium green above, paler beneath. Stipules triangular-lanceolate, 1 mm long, acute, pubescent. Male flowers geminate or in few-flowered fascicles; pedicels 0.5-1 cm long, capillary, glabrous; sepals elliptic-obovate, 2.5-3 mm long, rounded at the apex, connate at the base, sparingly pubescent without, glabrous within, pale greenish-yellow; petals obovate-spathulate, 2 mm long, rounded or emarginate, glabrous, yellow; disc-glands deeply bilobed, c. 1 mm long; stamens connate at base, filaments c. 1 mm long, anthers 0.2-0.3 mm long, pistillode trilobate, minute. Female flowers solitary, or sometimes accompanied by a ♂ flower in the same axil; pedicels (2-) 3-4 cm long, slender, glabrous; sepals suborbicular to ovate, 2 x 1.5 mm, accrescent to 3-4 (-5) x 2.5 (-4) nun in fruit, obtuse or occasionally slightly apiculate, connate at the base, 3-5-ribbed, sparingly pubescent without at the base, pale green; petals minute; disc annular, 2-3 mm diam., crenulate; ovary globose, 2 mm diam., glabrous; styles bifid almost to the base, 1 mm long. Fruits roundly trilobate, 3-5 mm long, 6-7 mm diam., ± smooth, glabrous. Seeds 3 x 2 mm, smooth, dull, pale brown.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-October.

Type: Material cultivated in Calcutta in 1835 from material sent to Wallich from Kumaon, probably by Sir Robert Colquhoun (Wall., Num. List no. 7913A!). (K-WALL).

Distribution: Pakistan, N. India (Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh), Nepal. Common on rocks and cliffs and in stony soil on exposed rocky hill-sides and banks, near streamsides and in forest undergrowth; 2300 - 7500'/ 700 - 2300 m.