A herb that grows up to 60 cm. The plant is bitter in taste, the leaves are small, green, and short-petioled with a thin and glaucous under surface. The flowers are unisexual, monoecious, minute, greenish, and inconspicuous, short-stalked and borne in pairs in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a capsule, globose, slightly depressed at the top with six enervations. In the roots, the secondary growth starts very early and is well pronounced. There is a distinct cambium. No starch grains, mineral crystals or latex vessels are seen both in root and stem. |