Perennial shrub; branches zig-zagged, glabrous or pubescent; leaves alternate, often distichous, small, elliptic to ovate, entire or crenulate, greenish variegated with green, pink, pinkish-red and white, nerves 3-5 pairs, glaucous beneath; petioles short; stipules minute, acute; flowers small, apetalous, axillary on shortly decurved pedicels; in male flowers: calyx truncate, rim of the tube much thickened, stamens-3, filaments united into staminal column, produced; in female flowers: calyx coriaceous, campanulate, shortly 6-lobed, enlarged in fruiting; ovary globose or depressed at the top, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each, style very stout, forked into 3, short arms, stigmas 3, minute; fruits more or less succulent, globose, indehiscent or 6-valved, calyx enlarged; seeds broadly globose.