Herb up to 2 ft. high; rootstock stout, perennial; stems leafy, simple or branched, sparingly pilose with white spreading hairs below, more densely towards the top; leaves sessile, firm, very variable, occasionally all entire, sometimes all lobed, more often a few entire, the majority lobed; entire leaves lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, lobed leaves usually 3-lobed, less often 5-7-lobed, apices of leaf and lobes acute, slightly hyaline-mucronulate, base cuneate, margin hyaline, quite entire or hyaline-denticulate, 4-5 1/2 in. long, 1 1/2-3 in. wide, rather sparingly beset with white spreading hairs on the nerves on both surfaces; stipules subulate, 1/10 in. long, usually entire, not glandular, very caducous; cymes rather lax, many-flowered, often hardly overtopping the leaves; peduncles softly and sparingly hirsute, 1 1/2-4 in. long; primary branches hirsute, 3/4-1 1/4 in. long; bracts lanceolate, entire, or the lowest with 2-3 hyaline non-glandular teeth on each side, lowest 1/3 in., uppermost 1/5 in. long; male sepals lanceolate, sparingly hairy outside or glabrous, margins quite entire; petals yellow, spathulate-lanceolate, 1/4 in. long, free; disc-glands free; stamens 8; filaments of both series united in a column; female sepals like the male but rather larger; petals as in male but larger; hypogynous glands free; ovary glabrous; styles 3, 2-lobed at the apex; capsule 3-dymous, ovate, 1/2 in. across; cocci oblong, glabrous; seeds wide ovate-oblong, 1/3 in. long, 1/4 in. wide.
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