Stem erect, 8 in. to 3 ft. high, slender, about 1 lin. or less thick, scarcely branched, with a few stinging hairs or almost glabrous. Leaves with long slender petioles, membranous, ovate, acuminate, base broadly obtuse to somewhat truncate, margin rather broadly serrate, or crenate-serrate, 1 1/2–3 1/2 in. long, 1–2 in. wide, with a few stiffish appressed hairs on both faces especially on the veins beneath, and numerous short linear cystoliths on the lower face; petiole of varying lengths, sometimes rather shorter, sometimes longer than the leaf-blade; stipules joined to about the middle, free limb linear-subulate, ciliolate, about 1/3 in. long. Inflorescences narrow, generally longer than the leaves, bearing sessile clusters at intervals on the long slender stalk or its few short branches, clusters bisexual, male flowers few, soon falling. Male perianth 4-partite, segments hispid on the outside, “whitish or rosy with a median green nerve” (Weddell). Female perianth 4-partite, the anterior segment smaller than the other three, the lateral pair becoming ultimately largest, margin minutely ciliolate, the upper keeled and passing into the short dilated joint of the pedicel; stigma about half the length of the ovary, obscurely branched at the base. Achene deflexed, pale brown, compressed, ovate, narrowly winged, the median area depressed and more or less minutely warted, about 3/4 lin. long.
