Annual, (10-) 30-80 cm high, erect or ascending, branched, scurfy-mealy, becoming glabrescent or glabrous later; stem indurated, angular-striate. Leaves up to 6 x 3 cm, lower, long-petiolate, triangular-deltoid to lanceolate-hastate, rounded or acuminate at apex, mostly irregularly sinuate-dentate or incised or laciniate (lobes sometimes lobulate), prominently nerved and scurfy-canescent on both sides. Flowers in clusters and solitary, the former with staminate and pistillate flowers forming mostly leafless short spikes or panicles; the latter only pistillate, scattered in the axils of middle and upper leaves. Perianth of staminate flower 5, obtuse-segmented, fruiting valves 5-8 x 2-5 mm, orbicular or oblong-rhombic, dentate or entire, with or without appendages on back. Stigmas 2, connate at base. Seeds 1.5 mm across, lenticular, black-brown.