Herbs perennial, dioecious or monoecious. Rhizomes woody. Stems caespitose, simple or many branched, 60-150 cm tall, ca. 1 cm in diam., antrorsely setulose, armed with spreading stinging hairs, dense in lower parts, sparser in upper parts. Stipules brownish or greenish, interpetiolar, connate, narrowly ovate, oblong or oblong-ovate, 7-15 mm, herbaceous, with several ribs, puberulent, with cystoliths, apex shallowly 2-cleft or emarginate, petiole 1-9 cm, armed with stinging and retrorsely setulose hairs; leaf blade greenish brown abaxially, dark brownish adaxially when dry, triangular-ovate, oblong-ovate, broadly ovate or cordate, 5-12 × 2.5-11 cm, herbaceous or thinly papery, 5-veined, lateral basal veins arcuate, reaching distal margin, secondary veins 2 or 3 each side, both surfaces sparsely armed with stinging and appressed setulose hairs, base truncate to cordate, margin coarsely doubly dentate or incised-lobed, lobes 1-or 2-denticulate each side, apex shortly acuminate or acute; cystoliths botuliform on both surfaces. Inflorescences unisexual, male inflorescences in proximal axils; paniculate, with a few branches, longer than petioles; female ones in distal axils. Male flowers subsessile, in bud 1-1.2 mm; perianth lobes connate 1/2 of length, sparsely puberulent. Female perianth lobes connate at base, dorsal-ventral lobes brownish, elliptic-ovate, setulose, lateral lobes broadly ovate, 1/4-1/3 as long as dorsal ones. Achene light brownish, broadly ovoid, slightly compressed, ca. 1 mm, conspicuously verrucose, invested by persistent perianth lobes. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.
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