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Leaf blade 1–5 × 0.5–2 cm, ovate to lanceolate in outline, acute at the apex, deeply incised-dentate or laciniate, cuneate to rounded or truncate at the base, thinly chartaceous, 3–5(7)-nerved from the base, sparingly setose along the midrib and main nerves on both surfaces, otherwise usually subglabrous; lateral nerves in 2–4 pairs, slightly prominent.
Inflorescences up to 9 cm long, the peduncle up to 5 cm long, terminal or leaf-opposed, bisexual with 1–4 female flowers at the base; male bracts and female bracteoles resembling the stipules; male bracteoles 1 mm long, linear; female bracts 3 mm long, lanceolate.
Herb, up to 300 mm tall. Stems annual from woody rootstock. Leaves sessile, deeply laciniately lobed. Male flowers solitary in each bract. Racemes usually 2-sexual. Flowers greenish yellow.
Male flowers: pedicels 1 mm long; buds obovoid; calyx lobes 1.5 × 0.5–1 mm, lanceolate to broadly ovate, glabrous, yellowish-green; stamens c. 1 mm long; pistillode 3-lobed.
An erect sparingly branched urticating perennial herb to c. 30(40) cm tall, monoecious; stems few from a slender woody rootstock, pubescent.
Seeds 3.5–4 mm in diameter, subglobose, pale grey, flecked with light brown and with scattered circular patches of white papillae.
Fruit 5 × 8 mm, 3-lobed, the keels slightly shouldered, smooth, setose on the keels, otherwise ± glabrous.
Stipules 2–3 mm long, linear-lanceolate, ciliate, otherwise glabrous, becoming reflexed.
Petiole up to 12 mm long, or leaves subsessile.
