Shrubs up to 3 m tall; branches glabrous, with prominent leaf scars. Petiole 0.2-2.5 cm; leaf blade very variable in shape and color, linear, linear-lanceolate, oblong, elliptic, lanceolate, ovate, spatulate, or fiddle-shaped to obovate, sometimes divided to midvein into upper and lower parts, thinly leathery, green, purple-red, and/or yellow, sometimes with colored spots or stripes of spots, base cuneate to obtuse, apex acute or acuminate to rounded. Inflorescences 8-30 cm. Male flowers white; pedicels delicate; petals 5, smaller than sepals; disk glands 5; stamens 20-30. Female flowers yellowish; pedicels slightly thickened; sepals ovate-triangular; disk annular; styles recurved, entire. Capsule subglobose, slightly flattened, glabrous, 9 mm in diam, Seeds 6 mm.