Slender, much branched, straggling and trailing herb with weak stems up to over 1 m long. Leaves alternate, simple; ocrea cylindrical, 1 cm long, pale brown, membranous, bearing a terminal fringe of long hairs; petiole 1–1.5 cm long; blade deltoid to lanceolate, 2–3 cm × 1.5–2 cm, base truncate to cuneate, apex very acute and sometimes aristate, margin entire or slightly uneven but not deeply lobed. Inflorescence a spike-like, slender raceme up to 30 cm long. Flowers bisexual or male, white or greenish, strongly heterostylous; pedicel filiform, longest in bisexual flowers; bisexual flowers with 6 linear to ovate tepals 1.5 mm long, inner 3 ones petaloid, styles 3, 2 mm long and connate in lower part; male flowers with 5 narrowly oblong tepals. Fruit a fusiform nut 5–7 mm long, pendulous, glabrous or pubescent, bearing 3 spreading prickles 1 mm long at the centre or slightly below.

Antitussive (leaves)

PROTAbase: Oxygonum atriplicifolium

The macerated leaves are used as a dressing for abscesses and wounds. The leaf juice is swallowed as a cure for cough.