A rough, hairy, herbaceous, annual plant, with an erect, branching, furrowed stem, from 5 to 10 feet in height. Its leaves are opposite, from 4 to 7 inches broad, scabrous and hairy, with three large, deep lobes which are oval, lanceolate, acuminate, and closely serrated; the lower leaves are often 5-lobed. The petioles are narrowly winged and ciliate; racemes often paniculate. The flowers are mean and obscure, in long, leafless spikes, axillary and terminal. The fruit (fertile involucre) is turbinate-obovoid, with a short, conical-pointed apex, 6-ribbed, the ribs terminating in as many cristate tubercles.

Astringent, emetic and febrifuge (leaf); stimulant, astringent, hemostatic, and antiseptic (plant)

Plants for a Future
King's American Dispensatory

To insect bites and various skin complaints, internally they are used as a tea in the treatment of pneumonia, fevers, nausea, intestinal cramps, diarrhoea and mucous discharges (leaf); in the treatment of menstrual disorders and stroke (roots); excellent application to mercurial and all other ulcers of a fetid or gangrenous character (plant)