Dioecious tree, 4–10 m tall; penultimate branchlets woody. Bark fissured. Branchlets drooping, to 40 cm long; internodes 10–40 mm long, 0.7–1.5 mm diam., broadened at end near teeth, mostly densely pubescent in furrows; ribs slightly rounded with a minutely roughened keel. Teeth (8–)9–13, spreading, c. 1 mm long, not overlapping, withered. Male spikes 3–12 cm long, 2–4 whorls per cm; anther 1–2.5 mm long; bracteoles deciduous usually as a pair or united with perianth parts. Cones cylindric to barrel-shaped, longer than broad, sessile or on peduncle to 10 mm long; cone body 20–50 mm long, 17–30 mm diam.; bracts with long and slender mucro; valves in several rows, sometimes extending well beyond cone body, broadly acute to acute, often pungent, protuberance fused with body or inconspicuous, entire, only as about as long as bracts. Winged seeds 7–12 mm long, very dark brown. Flowers all year.