A herb with woody base; stems erect or ascending, simple or sparingly branched, never twining, 4-6 in. high, sparingly to rather copiously pubescent and sparingly armed with stinging hairs; leaves subsessile, membranous, oblong, obtuse, base wide-cuneate or truncate, margin sparingly toothed except at the entire base, lateral teeth small, sometimes obsolete, the rounded apex rather strongly 3-5-toothed, 1/3-1/2 in. long, 1/4-1/3 in. wide, sparingly hirsute and bristly on the nerves on both surfaces; petiole 1 lin. long or less, hirsute and bristly; stipules spreading, lanceolate, hirsute, 1 1/2 lin. long; racemes leaf-opposed and subterminal, with many male flowers solitary to their bracts above and 1-3 basal female flowers; peduncle and rhachis closely pubescent and sparingly bristly; male bracts lanceolate, entire, nearly glabrous, 1 1/2 lin. long; female bracts lanceolate, entire, 2 lin. long; male calyx 3-partite; lobes ovate, apiculate, puberulous externally; stamens 3; filaments rather longer than the anthers, erect, thickened below; female calyx 3-partite, lobes suborbicular, pinnately 5-6-lobulate on each side, pubescent externally, glabrous within, lobules lanceolate, as long as the width of the accrescent indurated rhachis, in fruit 1/3 in. long; ovary densely setose; styles 3, connate for half their length in a glabrous column, free and recurved above; capsule 3-coccous, 1/3 in. across; cocci sparingly setose, slightly angled on the back; seeds globose.
Home