Plants to 1 m tall. Root reddish, rarely white, conic. Stem simple or few branched, hollow. Leaf blade light green, hastate to ovate, slightly succulent, margin entire or with a few lobelike teeth. Male flowers: perianth segments usually 4; filaments filiform, flattened; anthers without an appendage. Fruiting bracts slightly compressed, with a thornlike appendage on each side, apex with 2 teeth; stigmas exserted. Utricle ovoid or subglobose, compressed, ca. 2.5 mm in diam.; pericarp brown.

Commonly cultivated as a vegetable. in China [unknown in the wild; widely cultivated in temperate and subtropical regions of the world].