Root tubers strong. Stems twining, to 2 m, pale gray, pubescent along 2 lines. Petiole 2.5-4.5 cm; leaf blade abaxially glaucous, adaxially darkening on drying, ovate or ovate-oblong, 4.5-12(-20) × 3.5-8(-10) cm, thin papery, base cordate, basal lobes rounded, apex apiculate or acuminate, glabrous except for veins, basal veins 5, lateral veins ca. 3 pairs. Inflorescences racemelike, 2.5-7 cm, less often laxly branched and to 13 cm; cymules 2-flowered; peduncle 1-5 cm, puberulent. Pedicel 0.2-1.8 cm, pubescent. Sepals ovate, 1.5-2 × ca. 1 mm, glabrous or pubescent; basal glands 5, minute. Corolla greenish white drying dark, subrotate; lobes oblong-lanceolate, ca. 5 × 1.5 mm, glabrous. Corona ± tubular, pure white, 3-4 mm high, plicate and with ± free adaxial appendages between acute teeth, marginal teeth 10, alternately rounded and acute, ca. 0.5-0.7 mm. Anther appendages oval; pollinia oblong. Stigma head bifid, included within anthers. Follicles fusiform, 9-12 × 2-3 cm, conspicuously echinate, spines curved at tip. Seeds brown, 7-10 × ca. 5 mm, conspicuously dentate at end opposite coma; coma 3-4 cm. Fl. May-Oct, fr. Aug-Dec.
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