Shrubs 1–2 m tall, deciduous; bark dark brown or grayish black, smooth; young branches green, glabrous, smooth, with conspicuous leaf scars. Leaf petiole 1–5(–6) cm; stipules threadlike, divided apically or rarely undivided; leaf blade abaxially light green, grayish white, or glaucous green, ovate, obovate-elliptic, ovate-rounded, rarely elliptic or ovate lanceolate, 3.5–9(–18) × 2–6(–8.5) cm, papery, glabrous, veins 5–7(or 8), conspicuous, raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, base broadly cuneate or ± rounded, margin spiculate serrate to spiculate crenate, apex acuminate, rarely caudate-acuminate. Umbels between middle and lower 1/3 of midvein, rarely on upper part of young branches; staminate umbels 3–12(–18)-flowered; carpellate umbels 1–3-flowered. Flowers pedicellate; petals light green, 1–5 mm; carpellate flowers: style 3–5-divided. Fruit subglobose or ellipsoid, ca. 4–8 mm in diam., nearly sessile. Seeds 3–5, lobes 3–5.

Galactogogue and diuretic

Flora of China

Used for treating oliguria and urinary infections.

Contraindicated during pregnancy.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 609, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.