Sauropus trinervis Hook.f. & Thomson ex Müll.Arg. in Linnaea 32: 72. 1863 & in DC., Prodr. 15(2): 242. 1866 (as trinervius); Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 334. 1887, p. p. (excl. Sikkim specimens); Kanjilal et al., Fl. Assam 4: 173. 1940; Chakrab. & M.Gangop. in J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 20: 542, f. 13. 1996.

Shrubs, 1 - 1.5 m high, almost entirely glabrous; leaf-bearing branchlets up to 40 cm long, terete in age, often papillose puberulous when young. Leaves narrowly ovate, ovate-lanceolate, triangular-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute, obtuse, rounded to subtruncate or broadly cuneate or often unequal at base, caudate-acuminate at apex, 3.5 - 12 x 1.5 - 4.5 cm, membranous to thinly chartaceous, strongly trinerved at base; lateral nerves 3 or 4 pairs above the basal; petioles 1.5 - 3 mm long; stipules linear to linear-lanceolate, 3 - 7 mm long. Male flowers: pedicels 6 - 15 mm long; calyx flattened, star-shaped, 4 - 10 mm in diam.; segments 6, narrowly oblong to linear, 1.5 - 4 x 0.5 - 1.3 mm, narrowly rounded to obtuse at apex; staminal column ca 0.5 mm long; anthers ca 0.3 mm long, horizontal. Female flowers: pedicels 4 - 15 mm long, often puberulous; calyx segments elliptic, ovate, oblong or suborbicular, 1.5 - 5 x 1 - 3 mm, somewhat accrescent; ovary turbinate, ca 1 x 1.5 mm; styles ca 1 mm long, bifid at apex. Fruits subglobose, depressed, 10 - 12 x ca 20 mm, obscurely lobed, thin-walled; pedicels 7 - 15 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. April - Oct.

Distrib. India: Primary forests, up to 1300 m altitude. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Bangladesh and China (Yunnan).