Erect perennial monoecious shrub, glabrous, up to 3.5 m tall. Leaves biseriate, alternate, oblong to orbicular, 2–7.5 × 1–3 cm, entire, glaucous beneath, dark green above. Inflorescence a dense axillary fascicle. Flowers unisexual, without corolla. Calyx persistent, more or less intensely red; in male flower disciform, 6–10 mm in diameter, stamens 3, connate; in female flower 6-cleft more than halfway down, lobes 6–8 mm wide, stigma 3-branched, red, each branch bilobed. Fruit a globose to faintly 6-angular capsule, c. 1.5 cm in diameter, white, dehiscing, 3-valved. Seeds angular, black.

Widely distributed in evergreen forests, clearings, scrub brush, rocky ground, wasteland, and roadsides. Cultivated at elevations from sea level to 1,300 m a.s.l. Propagated by stem cutting. In commercial agriculture, plants are cultivated at a spacing of 30–40 × 30–40 cm, with regular plucking to stimulate the growth of new shoots.
Young shoots are eaten raw or cooked (boiled or fried) in many dishes such as kaeng phak waan ban, a spicy soup. Contains 79.8 g water, 7.6 g protein, 1.8 g fat, 6.9 g carbohydrates, 234 mg calcium, 64 mg phosphorus, 3.1 mg iron, 10,000 IU vitamin A, 0.23 mg vitamin B1, 0.15 mg vitamin B2, 136 mg vitamin C, 2.0 g ash, and 1.9 g fibre per 100-g serving.
Caution:  Respiration problems following the consumption of this plant have been reported in Japan and Taiwan.