Dioecious rhizomatous shrubs, forming erect clumps, to 1.5 m in height; bark red-brown to gray with age, cracked and irregularly fissured; branches alternate or more commonly whorled and becoming rigid; twigs bright green, becoming yellow-green with age and not viscid; terminal buds conic, 1-3 mm long; leaves opposite, small, brown, appearing as pairs of connate scales along the stems; pollen cones 2 to several at nodes, obovoid, 4-6 mm long, on very short peduncles or sessile; female cones 2 to several at nodes, on naked peduncles 7-15 mm long, orange at maturity; seeds 2, paired, ellipsoid, brown to chestnut and smooth. Cones produced in late winter and early spring.