A deciduous dioecious shrub, up to 2 m tall. Young shoots reddish, tomentose or pubescent. Mature leaves 30-71 x 20-60 cm, orbicular-cuneate or broadly elliptic-oblong, obtuse; margin undulate to subentire; nerves prominent; petiole 20-77 mm long, 2-2½ times the length of the lamina. Flowers small, unisexual, in axillary or terminal panicles. Male flowers: bracts lanceolate, c. 2 mm long, 1/2 to 2/3rd cleft; lobes 1-1.2 mm long, triangular, margin pubescent-glandular. Petals 5, the lobes ± 2 mm long, narrow oblong, nerves attached just below the disk. Stamens 5, opposite the calyx lobes; filaments ± 1.1 mm long, attached to the rim of the disk; anthers suborbicular, basifixed, less than 1 mm long, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary rudimentary. Female flowers: slightly smaller than the male flowers; fertile flowers few. Calyx lobes obtuse. Stamens rudimentary. Ovary less than 1 mm long, globose-compressed; style about as long as the ovary, included, persistent, thick; stigma capitate, sterile flowers many, on long hairy peduncles. Drupe compressed, laterally oblique, 5 mm long. Epicarp puberulous to tomentose, nervose. Mericarp fleshy.

.Fl. Per.: April-May.

Type: Described from Italy, Hb. Linn. 378/27 (LINN).

Distribution: S. Europe, S.W. Asia and China.

Fairly common and gregarious from 762-1524 m in the N.W. Himalaya. The sterile female flowers are borne on long hairy pedicels, giving the panicles a very striking appearance. Commonly known as the ‘Wig Tree’.