The Queen's Root is an indigenous, herbaceous plant, with perennial roots. It has an annual, smooth, upright stem 2-3 feet high. Leaves are alternate, nearly sessile, oblong-lanceolate, minutely serrate, with two glandular stipules at the base. Flowers are monoecious, in terminal spikes, without corollas, yellow; the male flowers are of a two-cleft calyx or crenulate little cup, with two stamens on elongated filaments united at the base; female flowers are few, at the lower part of the spike, with a three-cleft calyx, and three-cleft stigma. Fruit is a three-lobed, three-celled, and three-seeded pod.