Stems hispid, with stinging hairs. Leaf blades abaxially hispid, both surfaces with stinging hairs. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on different plants. 2 n = 52.

Flowering late spring-early fall. Alluvial woods, margins of deciduous woodlands, fencerows, waste places; 0-500 m; introduced; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; B.C., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Alaska, Calif., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., Tenn., Va., Wash., W.Va.; native to Eurasia.

No documented specimens of Urtica diocia var. dioica are known from Vermont; it could occur there in similar habitats.

There is a specimen of this species in the herbarium of the University of Notre Dame. It was collected by Nieuwland on the border of St. Joseph Lake, in St. Joseph County. He said it is established there.