Dioecious spreading to erect shrub 0.5-.1.5m high, root-suckering; bark grey-brown, smooth or slightly fissured on big branches.
Branchlets ascending, to 12 (-18) cm long; articles 3–12 mm long, 0.5–0.9 mm diam., smooth, slightly pubescent in furrows; phyllichnia angular to rounded; teeth 5–7(-10), acute, erect to slightly spreading, convex, not overlapping, not or rarely marcescent.
Male spikes 0.5–4.5 cm long, 6–10(-17) whorls per cm; bracteoles persistent; anther 0.5–1.0 mm long.
Cones cylindrical, occasionally irregular and with a sterile apex to c. 5 mm long; peduncle 3–14 mm long, slender; cone body 12–28 mm long, (6-)8–18 mm diam.; bracteoles obtuse to broadly acute, pyramidal protuberance shorter than bracteole body and diverging from it low down. Samaras 4.0–8.0 mm long, dark brown to blackish.