Herb climbing or trailing to 1 m.; stems long bristly-hairy, also with shorter finer hairs intermixed, the long hairs readily breaking off and irritant.. Leaf-blade broadly ovate-cordate in outline, shortly and rather densely hairy, also with scattered longer irritant bristles above and on the nerves beneath, sinuate-toothed, 32–91 mm. long, 41–108 mm. broad, palmately 5–7-lobed; lobes triangular, acute to obtuse, with the central lobe largest and often itself shallowly 3-lobulate with 2 shallow basal lateral triangular lobules; petiole hairy like the stems, 30–115 mm. long.. Male flowers 1–3, on 8–15 mm. long pedicels; receptacle-tube pale green, 3–5 mm. long; lobes filiform, 1.5–3.5 mm. long; petals yellow, rounded, apiculate, 7–10 mm. long, 3.5–8 mm. broad, united in lower quarter.. Female flowers on 35–90 mm. long shortly bristly stalks; ovary fusiform, 12–14 mm. long, 3.5–6 mm. across, densely covered with short bulbous-based hairs; receptacle-tube campanulate, 2.5–5 mm. long; lobes filiform, 0.5–4 mm. long; petals ± 12 mm. long and 7.5 mm. broad, rounded, apiculate, shortly connate below.. Fruit (fig. 15/1, p. 95) on a stalk 35 mm. or more long, obovoid or ellipsoid, subterete, 65–80 mm. long, 42–52 mm. across, smooth except for scattered very slightly elevated broad blunt spines, firm-walled, fleshy, green with pale yellow longitudinal stripes, becoming uniform dull yellow.. Seeds lenticular, smooth, elliptic in outline, 7 × 3.5 × 2 mm.
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A pumpkin family plant. It is a climbing plant. The stems are 1 m long. They have long bristly hairs amongst shorter finer hairs. The leaves are broadly oval to heart shaped and densely hairy. There are teeth around the edge. The leaves are 3-9 cm long by 4-10 cm wide. They have 5-7 lobes spread like fingers on a hand. The central lobe is largest. Male and female flowers are separate. The fruit is oval and 7-8 cm long by 4-5 cm wide. They are green with yellow stripes.
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