Herbs perennial, monoecious. Rhizomes woody, ca. 1 cm in diam. Stems light purplish, branched, 60-150 cm tall; stems and petioles sparsely hirtellous, armed with stinging hairs. Stipules free, linear-lanceolate, 5-10 mm, puberulent; petiole 1-5 cm; leaf blade triangular, triangular-lanceolate, sometimes ovate, 2.5-11 × 1-5 cm, 3-veined, lateral veins 2-4 each side, adaxial surface with sparse stinging hirtellous hairs, abaxial surface with sparse stinging and pubescent hairs, base rounded, truncate, or shallowly cordate, margin coarsely 7-12-dentate or sharply serrate, sometimes doubly serrate or several pinnate lobes in the lower part, apex acute, sometimes short acuminate; cystoliths punctiform. Inflorescences unisexual; male inflorescences in distal axils, paniculate, spreading; female inflorescences in proximal axils, spicate, erect or drooping, with a thick axis and few branches in the proximal part. Male flowers short pedicellate or sessile, in bud ca. 1.5 mm; perianth lobes connate 1/2 of length, puberulent. Female flowers: perianth lobes connate at base, dorsal-ventral lobes equal to achene in size and shape, setulose and with 1-3 stinging hairs, lateral lobes ovate, 2-3 × as long as dorsal ones, herbaceous. Achene brownish, ovoid, compressed, 1.2-2 mm, verrucose, sometimes puberulent, with sunken dots, invested by persistent perianth lobes. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.
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A stinging herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 0.6-1.5 m high. The underground stems or rhizomes are stout and 1 cm across. The stems are purplish and have bristles and hairs. The leaves are triangle shaped and 2.5-11 cm long by 1-5 cm wide. There are coarse teeth along the edge. The leaf stalks are 1-5 cm long. The flowers are small. The male and female flowers are separate on the same plant. The male ones are in groups in the axils and the female ones are in pike like groups.
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