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Evergreen shrublets 10-40 cm tall, monoecious; stem scabrous; branches terete, 2-5 mm in diam., scorpioid-curved, rugose. Leaves usually clustered apically, often recurved or pendulous; stipules 4-8 × 3-4 mm wide at base, glandular-pubescent when young, persistent; petiole 2-5 mm, glandular-pubescent when young, glabrescent; leaf blade spatulate, obovate-oblong, or ovate, sometimes oblong, 4.5-16.5 × 2.5-6.3 cm, ± fleshy when fresh, thinly leathery or thickly papery when dry, dark green and nerves gray-white adaxially when live, yellow-white when dry, usually glabrous, sometimes abaxially glandular-pubescent at base, glabrescent, base cuneate or obtuse, rarely rounded, apex rounded or obtuse, rarely retuse; venation pinnate, midrib flat when live, raised on both surfaces when dry, lateral veins 6-9 pairs, flat on both surfaces. Inflorescence cauliflorous, 2-5-flowered clusters or leafless branches at middle or lower part, sometimes in short cymes to 15 mm; peduncles short and robust, with many bracts; bracts lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Male flowers: pedicels filamentous, 3-5 mm; calyx red or purple; sepals 6, biseriate, subequal, obovate, 2-3 × ca. 1.5 mm; disk segments 6, opposite sepals; stamens 3; filaments connate into a short cylinder. Female flowers: pedicels 2-3 mm; sepals as in male; disk absent; ovary subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam., 3-locular; styles 3, bifid at apex. Fruit not seen. Fl. Feb-Oct.
Cultivated for medicine. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi [native to N Vietnam; cultivated in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand].
The leaves are used as medicine for coughs, sore throat, and acute bronchitis.
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