An erect, leafy, urticating perennial herb up to 40 cm tall, dioecious; stems several from a woody rootstock, branched, puberulous.Stipules 1.5–2 mm long, linear-lanceolate.Petioles short, 1–2 mm long, or leaves subsessile.Leaf blade 1–4 × 0.2–1 cm, linear-lanceolate, acute or obtuse at the apex, entire or with only a few apical teeth on the margins, truncate or shallowly cordate at the base, chartaceous, 3–5-nerved from the base; lateral nerves in 4–7 pairs, not prominent above, prominent beneath, brochidodromous; indumentum sparingly puberulous on both surfaces, and with urticating bristles along the midrib and main nerves beneath.Inflorescences terminal (male) or leaf-opposed (female), the male inflorescences up to 9 cm long, the females not exceeding 4 cm; male bracts resembling the stipules, 2–3-flowered; male bracteoles 1 mm long, filiform; female bracts 2 mm long, ovate, 1-flowered; female bracteoles resembling the male bracts.Male flowers: pedicels 1–1.5 mm long; buds globose; calyx lobes 2 × 1 mm, elliptic-ovate, subacute, subglabrous without, glabrous within; stamens 1 mm long; pistillode 3-radiate, the segments apically dilated.Female flowers; pedicels less than 1 mm long, extending slightly in fruit; calyx lobes 6, 2 mm long and wide, accrescent to 6 × 3 mm, each lobe 7–11 lobulate, the lobules linear and ± equalling the width of the calyx lobe rhachis, setose, green, the calyx-lobe rhachis loriform, subglabrous without, glabrous within; ovary 1 mm in diameter, 3-lobed, densely setose; styles 3, 1–2 mm long, connate to halfway, subglabrous or sparingly pubescent, stigmas smooth, recurved.Fruit 6 × 8 mm, 3-lobed, smooth, densely stinging-setose.Mature seeds as yet unknown.
