Herbs annual, 0.4-2.2 m tall. Stem erect, sparsely branched above, stout, light yellow or purple ribbed, glabrous or sparsely farinose. Petiole 2-7 cm; leaf blade fresh green on both surfaces, broadly ovate to ovate-triangular, 6-15 × 5-13 cm, glabrous or slightly farinose, base rounded, truncate, or subcordate, margin palmately lobed to deeply erose-dentate, apex acute or acuminate; lobes in 2 or 3 pairs, unequal, apex usually acute to acuminate; upper leaves smaller, leaf blade mostly triangular-hastate, margin with a few lobelike teeth, sometimes subentire. Flowers bisexual and female, usually several per glomerule, these arranged in spreading panicles on upper branches. Perianth segments 5, narrowly ovate, abaxially keeled, slightly farinose, margin membranous, apex obtuse. Stamens 5. Utricle lenticular; pericarp white dotted, membranous, adnate to seed. Seed horizontal, black, not lustrous, of same shape as utricle, usually 2-3 mm in diam., distinctly orbicular pitted; embryo annular. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

The Chenopodium hybridum aggregate is represented in China by at least two entities (subspecies or even species) which differ from the typical European and SW Asian plant (C. hybridum subsp. hybridum): (1) C Asian plants which were described as C. badachschanicum Tzvelev (Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk SSSR 20: 434. 1960), and (2) E Asian plants which may be an as yet undescribed taxon. The plants from E China somewhat approach in their characters the North American species (or subspecies) C. simplex (Torrey) Rafinesque (C. gigantospermum (Aellen) Aellen). A new taxonomic revision of the C. hybridum aggregate throughout its range could clarify the situation.

Forest margins, scrub, valleys, slopes. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [NE India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia); C Asia, Europe; represented by a vicariant race in North America].