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Leaves 3–5-foliolate, somewhat coriaceous; petiole up to c. 17 cm. long, villous, at least when young; leaflet-lamina up to c. 22 × 10 cm., terminal leaflet obovate to narrowly obovate or occasionally broadly elliptic, apex rounded or subacute, cuneate at the base, with a petiolule up to c. 2·5 cm. long, lateral leaflets somewhat smaller, ± asymmetric, more broadly cuneate, or subtruncate at the base, sessile or with petiolules almost as long as the terminal leaflets, leaflet margins irregularly serrate or serrate-crenate, greyish-or cinnamon-villous above when young, later glabrescent, more densely villous below.
A climbing herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 2 m tall. The leaves have 3 to 5 leaflets. The leaflets are leathery and there are irregular teeth along the edge. The flowers are in dense compact heads. These are on long stalks. The flowers are red and with yellow anthers. The fruit are small and red. They are tart but edible.
Inflorescence of dense capitate-globose cymes, heads simple or compound or sometimes heads only moderately dense; peduncle up to c. 8 cm. long, often villous when young; tendrils villous, branching from the base of the inflorescence, or just below, or apparently sometimes absent; rhachis and branches of inflorescence usually villous.
An erect perennial up to c. 2 m. tall but with its branches often eventually twining, or with scrambling or climbing branches from the beginning but even then not climbing usually to more than c. 2 m. high.
Seeds brown, c. 7 × 5 mm., ellipsoid, longitudinal keel not much raised, with an elliptic pit and radiating ridges on the other side.
Branches rather coarsely striate, densely ferruginous-or cinnamon-villous, later becoming greyish-villous or finally glabrescent.
Calyx c. 1·5 mm. in diam., cyathiform, entire or shallowly lobed, glabrous to villous.
Stamens 2/3 the length of the petals; filaments red; anthers yellow.
Disk deep red, enclosing c. 2/3 of the strongly ribbed ovary.
Petals deep red, c. 1·5 mm. long, oblong, glabrous.
Fruit red, c. 1 cm. in diam.