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.

* Thickets, meadows, along streams, valleys, roadsides, near villages; 2500-4100 m. Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan.