It produces a branched stem up to 45 centimeters tall, with abundant glandular and non-glandular hairs.
The leaves are opposite, hairy, up to 2 cm long, and the basal ones typically die back before flowering.
The inflorescence bears as few as 3 or as many as 50 small, dioecious flowers arranged in a cyme and borne on very short pedicels.
The flowers are also borne on very short pedicels (stalks), so they tend to occur in tight clusters.
[3] It was named by Jean Louis Thuillier in his "Flore des Environs de Paris" (1800).