Shrub, 6–10 ft. high, twigs glabrous; root tuberous, 3 ft. long, 6–9 in. thick, weighing 5–25 lbs., bitter and charged with a noxious juice or sweet and harmless. Leaves long-petioled, membranous, the uppermost sometimes entire, ovate, acutely acuminate, rounded at the base, 4 in. long, 1 1/2 in. wide, downwards progressively 3–7-lobed almost to the base, rather broader than long, the largest reaching 10–12 in. in width; lobes linear-lanceolate, acutely acuminate, the central rather the largest, narrowed to the base, and there confluent in a small web 1/2– 3/4 in. across, each 3–7 in. long, 1/4–1 1/2 in. wide, tawny green above, glaucous beneath, glabrous on both sides or more or less pubescent especially on the main nerves near the base and especially beneath; petiole 2 1/2–10 in. long, glabrous or faintly puberulous near the apex, green or purplish like the main nerves; stipules triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, puberulous, 2–3 lin. long. Racemes lax, few-flowered, from the upper axils; peduncles slender, sometimes clustered, up to 2 in. long; bracts small, linear-lanceolate, entire, deciduous; male pedicels 2–3 lin. long, female pedicels spreading, up to 1 in. long. Calyx dirty yellow, campanulate, glabrous and pruinose outside, puberulous within near the apex, 5-lobed beyond the middle, male 2–2 1/2 lin. long, female 5 lin. long. Stamens 10; anthers small, with hairy tips. Disk glabrous. Ovary glabrous, narrowly 6-winged. Capsule 2/3 in. long, wide ellipsoid, rugulose, with 6 undulate almost crenate wings. Seeds ellipsoid, compressed, marbled, 1/2 in. long.
