Vigorous, spreading, tall plant with stout erect stems to 2 metres. Stems can be bluish-green or reddish in colour, branched above. Leaves broadly oval, triangular, stalked. Flowers white, in narrow leafy panicles from upper leaf joints.

Moist habitats, grassy banks, waste ground, roadside verges etc.

August to October.

Perennial.

Fairly frequent now over much of Britain except the far north.

Fairly frequent (often invasive) in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 122 of the 617 tetrads.