Stems erect, stout, 40-150(-200) cm. Leaves chiefly cauline; basal and proximal cauline petiolate, distal cauline leaves sessile or nearly so; petioles and rachises glabrous or occasionally pubescent and/or stipitate-glandular. Leaf blade: basal and proximal cauline 3-5×-ternately compound; leaflets brownish green to dark green or bright green, ovate to cuneate-obovate, apically undivided or 2-3(-5)-lobed, 15-60 × 8-45 mm, length 0.9-2.6 times width, usually leathery with veins prominent abaxially, margins often revolute, lobe margins entire, surfaces abaxially usually pubescent and/or papillose (i.e., with very minute sessile glands). Inflorescences panicles, apically ± acutely pyramidal, many flowered; peduncles and pedicels usually glabrous, rarely pubescent or stipitate-glandular. Flowers usually unisexual, staminate and pistillate on different plants; sepals 4(-6), whitish, lanceolate, 3-5 mm; filaments white to purplish, filiform, scarcely dilated distally, 2-6.5 mm, flexible; anthers 1-3.6(-4) mm, usually strongly apiculate. Achenes numerous, sessile or nearly sessile; stipe 0-1.1 mm; body ovoid to fusiform, 2-4.6 mm, prominently veined, usually pubescent and/or glandular; beak often dehiscent as fruit matures, ± straight, filiform, 1.5-4.7(-6) mm, about as long as achene body.
