Shrubs small, erect, 50--120 cm tall. Branches finely grooved, puberulous, glabrescent. Leaves ternate; petiole 5.2--10 cm, velutinous, glabrescent; leaflet blades orbicular-ovate, ovate, or rhombic, 5--10 × 4--8 cm, thick papery, often 3-lobed, abaxially sparsely puberulous on veins and ± reticulate, adaxially glabrous, base subtruncate to broadly cuneate, margin dentate to denticulate, apex acuminate; basal veins abaxially prominent. Compound cymes terminal or axillary, often paniclelike, 7-to many flowered; peduncle 3.5--8.5 cm, velutinous; bracts narrowly ovate, 3--6 mm. Flowers polygamous dioecious, ca. 1 cm in diam. Pedicel 7--10 mm, velutinous. Sepals 4, pinkish, erect, narrowly oblong, 1.4--2 × 0.4--1 cm, slightly widened toward apex, abaxially velutinous, adaxially glabrous, apex mucronate and recurved. Stamens 4--10 mm; filaments with a few short hairs near apex; anthers narrowly oblong, ca. 2.8 mm, glabrous or abaxially with a few hairs on connective, apex minutely apiculate. Ovaries pubescent. Style ca. 8 mm, densely villous. Achenes elliptic to ovate, ca. 3.5 × 2 mm, pubescent; persistent style ca. 2 cm, plumose. Fl. Jul--Sep, fr. Aug--Oct.