Joint Fir is an evergreen, woody vine. Stems with swollen nodes. Leaves opposite, stalked, simple, pinnately veined, margin entire. Flowers unisexual, borne in whorled, spikelike cones, arranged in lax, cymes. Male spikes have collars closely arranged and ± hiding axis (less often somewhat laxly arranged), each collar with 20–80 flowers, often also with a whorl of sterile female flowers, apical whorl with sterile female flowers only. Female spikes are solitary or several in a panicle, often cauliflorous; involucral collars widely separated, each with 4–12 flowers. Seeds drupelike, enclosed in a red, orange, or yellow, fleshy (rarely corky) false seed coat.