A perennial herbaceous plant 50-150 cm in height with a powerful horizontal rhizome, densely covered with adventitious roots. Stems are erect, highly branched.
The leaves are underdeveloped, in the form of small filmy scales, from the axils of which special assimilative leaf-like organs develop - modified shoots - phylloclades.
The flowers are greenish-yellow, numerous, small, solitary, axillary, on pendulous pedicels 5-12 mm long.
The fruit is a spherical red berry (5-8 mm in diameter). The seeds are also spherical, black, and wrinkled.
Blooms in May – July. The seeds ripen in August–September.