Climber. Stems 2-6 mm ø, puberulous and pat-ently hispid when young, later glabrescent and woo-dy. Leaves with puberulous (later glabrescent) petioles 6-11 cm, inserted 2-4 cm from the base of lami-na; lamina triangular-ovate to broadly ovate, apex gradually acuminate and terminating in a mucro, base truncate (or slightly emarginate), 15-21 by 9-17 cm; palmately 11-14-nerved; above glabrous, subnitidous, beneath subtomentose, very prominent-ly and finely reticulate, stiffly papyraceous. Male inflorescences cauliflorous, thyrsoid, 30—35(—55) cm long, yellowish pubescent, lower branches up to 8 cm, flowers borne in peduncled congested cymose clusters. Male flowers with pedicels about 1 mm; sepals 4, almost free, elliptic to oblanceolate, puberulous outside, 1.5 by 0.5-0.75 mm; corolla turbinate, margin crenulate, glabrous, scarcely 1 mm long; synandrium 1.5 mm long. Female flowers unknown. Infructescence cauliflorous and thyrsoid, similar to the male inflorescence, and 25 cm long. Drupes on pedicels 4.5 mm, rotund in outline, 6-7 mm ø, sparingly puberulous; endocarp bearing 2 rows of c. 8 transverse ± bilobed ridges, condyle slightly inflated.
Home