False Nettle is a perennial herb or subshrub, growing to 1-3 m. Membranous leaves are variable, ovate to elliptic or nearly circular, 7-25 x 4-15 cm, with a narrow tip. Leaf base is rounded, sometimes wedge-shaped or heart- shaped, and margins are toothed with teeth 2-3 mm broad and deep, of uniform size throughout. Leaves are nearly smooth or somewhat velvety, with no stinging hairs, hence called false nettle. Leaf stalks are slender, 3-10 cm. Male flower spikes are 7-10 cm long, paniculately branched at base. Female spikes are usually unbranched, solitary, 10-15 or up to 30 cm, slender or stout, sometimes pendulous. Flower clusters are 3-5 mm diameter. Achenes are ellipsoid, 0.7 mm, bearing a hooked style. Flowering: June-September.