Erect perennial herb, usually somewhat scandent, often suffruticose,1-2 m tall; stems usually glabrous (except at leaf nodes), attenuated toward apex, minutely papillate, square, the corners winged, the wings ending just below stipules on each internode, often free at apex. Stipular bristles united at base, prominent, 3-6 mm long, ciliolate; petioles obscure or to 5 mm long; blades +/- narrowly elliptic, acute at apex, acute to attenuate and often decurrent at base, greatly diminished toward apex of plant, glabrous to scabrid above, especially near margin, minutely scabrid and puberulent on veins below, the larger ones 4.5-10 cm long, l-3 cm wide; veins arcuate-ascending, often prominently impressed above. Flowers minute, sessile, interspersed with bristles, in axillary clusters less than 1 cm diam; calyx lobes 4, ca 0.5 mm long, persisting in fruit, 3 of the 4 attached to one fruit valve; corolla greenish-white, ca 1.2 mm long, 4-lobed ca halfway, the tube pubescent at rim inside; stamens included; style held at level of stamens; stigmas opening later than stamens. Capsules ca 1 mm long (excluding the persistent calyx), about as broad as long, puberulent, 2-valved, dehiscing basally; seeds 2, ca 1 mm long. Croat 4373. Leaf size and shape are variable. The species was reported in the Flora of the Canal Zone (Standley, 1928) as D. nudata Standl. This was no doubt a typographical error.