Euphorbia celastroides var. amplectens is a shrub or small tree, ranging in height from about 0.4 to 8 meters, occasionally reaching up to 9 meters. The stems vary from prostrate to erect and are pubescent, with flowering branches often nodose and measuring 1 to 4 millimeters in diameter, sometimes up to 6 millimeters. The leaves are simple, opposite, and distichous, with blades that are oblong, obovate, oblanceolate to elliptic, or linear, measuring between 4 to 70 millimeters in length and 3 to 30 millimeters in width, occasionally extending to 80 by 40 millimeters. Leaf apices are acute to obtuse, retuse, or mucronulate, with bases ranging from cuneate to obtuse and sometimes oblique. The upper leaf surfaces are glabrous, while the lower surfaces can be glabrous to pilose or villous and sometimes display a glaucous appearance. The leaf margins are entire, and the petioles are 0.5 to 5 millimeters long, possibly extending to 6 millimeters, and vary from glabrous to villous. Stipules are acute to rounded–triangular, 1 to 4 millimeters long, sometimes up to 6 millimeters, and can be glabrous to villous, erose, and ciliate. The flowers are in cyathia, either in short or open-branched cymes or solitarily in leaf axils. Peduncles are 0.5 to 10 millimeters long, potentially reaching 19 millimeters and range from glabrous to villous. The involucre is campanulate, 1 to 3 millimeters high, and 2 to 4 millimeters wide, and can be glabrous to villous. There are 4 to 5 glands that are either green or red and range from glabrous to pilose. The unisexual flowers are highly reduced, with pistillate flowers solitary on a gynophore and staminate flowers grouped in 5 cymules, each with one to several flowers. It lacks both sepals and petals. Male flowers are reduced to a single stamen, articulated at the junction of pedicel and filament, and subtended by slender bracteoles. The ovary is superior, with styles that are yellow, green, or red, bifid less than or more than half their length, measuring 0.5 to 1 millimeter long. The stigma can be glabrous to pubescent with a thickened stigma. The fruit is a capsule, green to brown, ovoid to rounded–triangular, measuring 2 to 4 millimeters long, and can be glabrous to pubescent. Gynophores are erect and exserted 0.5 to 1 millimeter from the involucre, with a surface that can be glabrous to pubescent. The seeds are brown to gray, measuring approximately 2 to 2.5 mm long. They are tetragonal to obcompressed and have a surface that is smooth to rugose. This variety inhabits mesic forests and is found at elevations ranging from 10-1310 meters.