Plant: perennial, rhizomatous herb or subshrub; 0.1-1.6 m tall Leaves: opposite or subopposite, rarely alternate; blades elliptic, lanceolate, to widely ovate, 5-18 cm long, 2-10 cm wide, subglabrous on both surfaces to scabrous adaxially and densely short pilose or puberulent abaxially Inflorescence: spikelike, often with a tuft of reduced leaves at the apex Flowers: in remote or crowded clusters of 1-few staminate flowers and several pistillate flowers or, rarely, all flowers of one kind; STAMINATE FLOWERS with 4 tepals, 4 stamens, the rudimentary pistil represented by a globose structure; PISTILLATE FLOWERS with the perianth parts fused and adnate to the ovary; style elongate, persistent; stigma linear, straight, or hooked Fruit: ACHENES flattened, ovoid to subcircular, 0.9-1.6 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm broad, subglabrous or bearing straight and hooked hairs; seed shape clearly apparent through the tightly adnate calyx, surrounded except at the base by corky tissue Misc: Swamps, bogs, marshes, wet meadows, ditches REFERENCES: Boufford, David E. 1992. Urticaceae. Ariz.-Nev. Acad. Sci. 26(1)2.