Japan Flora: Dioecious, branching, glabrous shrub with slender green branchlets; leaves oblong or elliptic, some­times obovate, 2-4 cm. long, 1,2，요5 cm. wide, subacute to very obtuse, acute to broadly cuneate at base, entire, green on upper side, whitish beneath, the stipules less than 1 mm. long, deciduous; staminate flowers many, axillary, about 3 mm. across, greenish, on short pedicels 2-3 mm. long; sepals and stamens 5; pistillate flowers few or solitary, axillary, the pedi­cels 5-10 mm. long; capsules depressed-globose, about 4 mm. across, green, the styles 3, bifid, the lobes short, flat, broadly linear, retuse to obtuse; seeds slightly lustrous; July. Thickets and grassy slopes in lowlands.

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. 

Var. amamiensis Hurusawa. Branchlets obtusely but distinctly trigonous, slightly thicker; leaves thicker; capsules depressed. s. Kyushu (Mageshima near Tanegashima). Ryukyus, Formosa. The Typical phase with larger, thinner leaves occurs in Korea, China, and e. Siberia.