This native perennial plant is about 1-2' tall and unbranched or little branched. Scattered white hairs occur occasionally along the central stem, although it becomes glabrous with age. The opposite leaves are up to 5" long and 3" across (excluding the petioles). They are ovate-cordate, dentate along the margins, and largely hairless. The slender petioles of the leaves are up to 2" long. The central stem terminates in a raceme of flowers up to 6" long. The stalk of this raceme has scattered white hairs. The small flowers are sparsely, but evenly distributed, along this stalk on slender pedicels up to ½" long. These pedicels spread outward. Each flower consists of 2 white petals, 2 green sepals, 2 stamens, and a slender style. Each petal is deeply divided into 2 lobes. At the base of each flower, there is a 2-celled ovary that is green and covered with stiff hooked hairs; it is obovoid in shape. Each cell of this ovary contains a single seed. The blooming period occurs during the summer and lasts about a month. Each flower is short-lived and replaced by a small bur-like fruit (see the description of the ovary above as well as the photograph below). The root system can produce rhizomes or stolons that extend through the soil or leaf mould to create vegetative offsets from the mother plant.