Stems hispid, with stinging hairs. Leaf blades abaxially hispid, both surfaces with stinging hairs. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on different plants. 2 n = 52.

Flowering late spring-early fall. Alluvial woods, margins of deciduous woodlands, fencerows, waste places; 0-500 m; introduced; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; B.C., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Alaska, Calif., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., Tenn., Va., Wash., W.Va.; native to Eurasia.

No documented specimens of Urtica diocia var. dioica are known from Vermont; it could occur there in similar habitats.