The woody branches of the typically many-stemmed Flueggea virosa subsp. virosa shrub are reddish brown to brown. In picture they are fairly smooth, apart from the gnarled bits at old nodes. The older stems are slightly shiny, the colouring patchy. Young branchlets are angular.

The branches are used to make fishing traps, the bark also as a fish poison. In Tanzania the roots are used in a remedy for snakebite (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Pooley, 1993; Codd, 1951).