Herb or softly woody subshrub 0.5-2 m high; stems densely armed with rigid stinging hairs 2-6 mm long. Leaves chartaceous; petioles mostly 3-12(-15) cm long, pubescent, sparsely to densely armed; junction of petiole and blade with a dense cluster (1.5-3 mm wide) of small digitiform glands; stipules split into a central subulate greenish part 2-5 mm long and several small lateral glands or gland-tipped setae; blades ovate or suborbicular in outline, 3-5-lobed, ? cordate at base, ca (5-)7-15 cm long, 8-18 cm broad, 5-7-palmatinerved, pubescent (often more densely so beneath), with stinging hairs along veins, the lobes oblong to obovate, obscurely to sharply denticulate, abruptly acute to acuminate. Dichasia terminal (or pseudoaxillary due to sympodial growth); peduncles sparsely to densely armed, 3.5-12 cm long; pistillate flowers ca 3-6 per inflorescence, at proxi-mal axils; staminate flowers ca 10-25 per inflorescence, clustered at tips of second-order branches. Staminate flowers subsessile (pedicels to 1 mm long); perianth greenish-white, unarmed, oblong-urceolate in bud, ca 11-13.5 mm long (in Panamanian specimens); perianth tube cylindric, basally dilated, ca 3-7.5 mm long, unarmed, glabrous to densely pubescent, the lobes suborbicular to ovate or broadly elliptic, ca 3-6 mm long, rounded, unarmed or with I or 2 stinging hairs, moderately to densely pubescent without (rarely glabrous); disc pulviniform, closely adnate to the base of the staminal column, densely hispidulous, 1 mm wide or more; stamens 10, biseriate, the outer series with filaments free, ca 3.5-4 mm long, the inner series with filaments ca 6.5-8.0 mm long, connate more than half-way into a column, the anthers elliptic, 1.3-1.5 mm long; staminodes filiform, ca 1.5-2.5 mm long. Pistillate flowers nearly sessile, pedicels becoming 1-4 mm long in fruit; sepals distinct, whitish, oblong, caducous, 2.8-3 mm long; disc a small annular ring ca 0.2 mm high; ovary pubescent and usually armate, sometimes glabrous, the styles nearly free, ca 1.2-1.3 mm long, incrassate, twice bifid. Capsules usually armed with stinging hairs, more or less rugose, ca 10-12 mm long; seeds oblong-obovate, somewhat compressed, 6.5-9.7 mm long, 3.5-5.1 mm broad, pale to dark brownish or grayish, more or less flecked, minutely rugulose, distinctly beaked, the caruncle deltoid, 1.2-1.5 mm high, 2-3 mm broad.
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