Annual, evergreen, tall, glabrous shrub; stem terete hollow, swollen at nodes; leaves alternate, broad, green-purple, peltate, palmately 5-11 lobed, membranous, glaucous, lobes oblong to linear, acuminate, gland-serrated; petioles very long, purple; stipules caducous; flowers in narrow, stout, erect, terminal panicles with subsessile cymes of lower males and upper female flowers; male cymes 3-20 flowered; perianth segments ovate, acuminate, valvate; stamens very many, filaments filiform, connate, repeatedly branched, anther cells distinct, parallel, subglobose; disk absent; pistillodes absent; female cymes 1-7 flowered; perianth spathaceous, caducous; ovary 3-celled each, 1-ovuled, styles coloured, long or short, spreading, entire, 2-fid, feathery or papillose; capsule of 3, 2-valved, cocci, oblong, smooth or covered with soft prickles; seeds oblong, caruneulate mottled with grey brown.