Compilation
Girardinia condensata

A herb, monœcious or diœcious; stem erect, 1 1/2–6 ft. high, simple or slightly branched, somewhat succulent, furrowed, hirtellous and beset with sharp stinging hairs, as are also the petioles, becoming glabrous below. Leaves very variable in form and size, simple and ovate or rotund-ovate, with acuminate apex and serrate or grossly serrate margin, becoming even on the same plant 3-lobed to deeply 3-lobed, lobes acuminate, with more or less serrate margin and sometimes with a shorter secondary lobe, base rounded, or very blunt to truncate or somewhat cordate, conspicuously 3-nerved, lateral nerves and veins more or less conspicuous beneath, 2–10 in. long, 1 1/6–10 in. wide, thinly membranous when dry, upper face dotted with cystoliths and with appressed white hairs, also a few stinging hairs on the nerves, lower face similarly hairy; petiole generally less than half the length of the leaf. United stipules broadly ovate, 2-fid at the apex, somewhat hispid, soon falling. Inflorescences unisexual, generally solitary in the leaf-axils, with a short peduncle, sometimes a second of alternative sex is present. Male simple, forked or with a few lax branches shorter or longer than the petiole, flowers densely arranged along the axes; bud about 1 lin. in diam.; perianth 4–5-partite, segments with merely a small thickening of the mid-vein below the apex, hispidulous on the back. Female shorter than the petioles, the cymules densely crowded on the axis or its short branches, densely beset with spreading white stinging hairs; flowers subsessile; perianth consisting of a very concave upper segment obscurely toothed at the apex and a caducous slender transparent hair-like lower segment. In fruit the inflorescence forms capitate or generally thick oblong or cylindrical spike-like simple or branched masses 1/2 lin. to 2 in. long, densely covered with the spreading stiff stinging hairs. Achene broadly ovate or somewhat cordate, 1 1/4 to nearly 2 lin. long.