Plants large, up to 1 m or more high with a smooth, cylindrical, unbranched stipe expanding into a flattened blade with lateral lobes lying in the plane of the blade. The relative proportion of stipe to blade is very variable, as is the degree of corrugation and marginal serration; some plants are quite smooth with few marginal teeth, others extremely rugose and spiny. Holdfast acirculardisc of dichotomous haptera. Colour golden brown; texture tough and pliable.