PLANT: Herbs, erect or scandent, annual or perennial, dioecious or monoe¬cious, usually pubescent, often with glandular, aromatic hairs. LEAVES: opposite, occasionally alternate distally, palmately compound or lobed, rarely simple and unlobed, the margins serrate. INFLORESCENCES: cymes, panicles,or spike-like, axillary or terminal, erect or pendant; staminate inflorescences loose, many-flowered; pistillate inflorescences few flowered, compact spike-like clusters. FLOWERS: small, bracteate, the petals 0; staminate flowers pedicellate, the sepals 5, the stamens 5; pistillate flowers subsessile, often paired, the sepals fused as a tube enclosing the superior ovary, the pistil 2-carpelled, 1-loculed, the style short, the stigmas 2, filiform. FRUITS: achene-like nutlets. SEEDS: 1. NOTES: 2 genera; 4 spp.; N. Temperate areas. Economically impor¬tant as source of hops (Humulus) and hemp (Cannabis). REFERENCES: Mason, Charles T., Jr. 1999. Cannabaceae. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. 32(1).