An upright and long-lived herbaceous plant or small shrub growing 0.5-3 m tall. Its younger stems are densely covered in star-shaped hairs, while its older stems become somewhat woody with age. Its alternately arranged leaves (4-10 cm long) have toothed margins and vary from being almost entire to shallowly three-lobed. Its pink flowers (about 1.5-2 cm across) are usually borne singly on short stalks in the upper leaf forks. Its fruit (6-10 mm across) are covered in numerous small hooked spines and split into several one-seeded segments when mature.