Stems erect, simple or branched, 2-6 dm, glabrous or puberulent in lines or throughout with incurved hairs, often with a few spreading hairs as well; petioles slender, divaricate, those of the larger lvs regularly more than half as long as the blades, these spreading, lanceolate to ovate, with a tendency to be rhombic; pistillate bracts 5-9-lobed, usually stipitate-glandular (visible at 10ש but without long hairs; staminate spikes scarcely exceeding the bracts; seeds 3, 1-2 mm. Dry or moist soil of open woods, roadsides, waste places, and gardens; Que. to N.D., s. to Fla. and Tex. Perhaps better treated as A. virginica var. rhomboidea (Raf.) Cooperr.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.