Herbs annual. Stems twining, 70-150 cm, striate, papillate, glabrous, much branched. Petiole 1-3 cm, papillate; leaf blade ovate-cordate, 3-6 × 1.5-4 cm, both surfaces glabrous, along veins minutely papillate, base cordate or sagittate, margin entire, apex acuminate; ocrea short, 2-3 mm, membranous, oblique, apex acute, not ciliate. Inflorescence usually axillary, racemose, lax, few or many flowered; bracts 1.5-2 mm, membranous, each 1-6-flowered. Pedicel 3-4 mm, slender, articulate, elongate in fruit. Perianth greenish, 5-parted; tepals elliptic, 2-3 mm, unequal in size, outer 3 larger and winged in fruit; wings entire, slightly decurrent along pedicels. Perianth (including wings) in fruit orbicular, 4-4.5 mm in diam. Stamens 8, included. Styles very short; stigmas capitate. Achenes included in persistent perianth, black, shiny, ellipsoid, trigonous, 3-3.5 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Grassy slopes, thickets and mixed forests in valleys, mountain valleys, fields; 200-2400 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shandong, Xinjiang [Bhutan, N India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia; SW Asia, Europe].