Shrub, mostly less than 60 cm tall (occasionally to 120 cm), glabrous, mostly unbranched and leafless in basal one-half to three-fourths. Petioles usually less than 6 mm long (to 13 mm); blades mostly oblong to lanceolate-elliptic, long-acuminate, subequilaterally acute to rounded at base, 10-19 cm long, 2-7 cm wide, the lateral veins in 6-9 pairs, loop-connected, extending to the apex. Spikes 1.5-5 cm long, white at anthesis, irregular, to 8 mm thick in fruit; peduncles ca 5 mm long; stamens 4 per flower; pistil conical, much longer than stamens; stigmas 3 or 4; bracts cupulate, glabrous, usually partly enclosing the lowermost anther of each flower, much smaller than fruits. Fruits mostly exserted, rounded, to 3 mm long including style, weakly papillate-puberulent, weakly ribbed, becoming tetragonous on drying; seeds brown, with 4 ribs. Croat 6550, 8582. Common in the forest. Flowers chiefly in the dry season and the earliest part of the rainy season. The fruits mature mostly in the middle to late rainy season, by the time the next season's spikes are beginning to develop.