Vegetative Characters :
Habit : Tall perennial shrub
Root : Branched tap root system
Stem : Aerial , erect , cylindrical, branched and hollow, solid at the base, glabrous,
Leaf : Simple, petiolate , hollow,exstipulate, alternate , broad , palmately lobed , usually 7-9 lobes , serrate, palmately reticulate divergent venation.
Floral Characters :
Inflorcence : Terminal panicle.
Male Flower : Bracteate , ebracteolate, pedicellate, male flowers (open for one day ) towards lower portion of the inflorescence, actinomorphic , incomplete.
Perianth : Tepals 5, apophyllous, uniseriate, green , valvate aestivation, odd tepal posterior in position.
Androecium: Stamens numerous (upto 1000) crowded and connate into about 8mm long cluster of stipitate phalanges, each stamen produsely branded , anthers globose basifixed.
Gynocium : usually absent rarely represented by pistillode.
Female Flower : Bracteate , ebracteolate, pedicellate, female flowers (open for fourteen days) found towards the apical portion of inflorescence , actinomorphic, incomplete and hypogynous.
Perianth : Tepals 3, apophyllous, green valvate.
Androecium : Absent but staminode is present.
Gynoecium : Tricarpellary , syncarpous, overy superior, distinctly trilobed, trilocular , covered with spiny outgrowth, single large ovule in each locule on axile placentation , style three with three bifid stigma.
Fruit : A schizocarp with spiny outgrowth , splits into three one seeded cocci.
Seed : Endospermous , knob - like caruncle develops from the micorpyle, that absorbs and temporarily retains water enabling germination.
Floral Formula :
Floral Formula : Br., Bbrl.,
