Climbing vine; stems 2-3 mm in diam, pubescent, subterete. Leaves alternate; stipules reflexed, lanceolate, long-acuminate, appressed-pubescent, ca 3-7 mm long; petiole pubescent with incurved hairs and sometimes with stinging hairs, mostly 2-5 cm long; stipels lanceolate, gland-tipped and usually glandular at base, 1.3-3.2 mm long; blades chartaceous, undivided, ovate with cordate base, usually 5-veined from the base, abruptly short-acuminate at the tip, mostly 7-15 cm long, 5-11 cm broad, pubescent on both sides but more or less glabrate in age, the mar-gins crenately toothed to subentire, the veins distinctly raised on both sides but more conspicuously so beneath. Inflorescences axillary (i.e. terminating reduced axillary branches ca 3-7 mm long); peduncle 1-1.8 cm long at anthesis, becoming 1.8-2.3 cm long in fruit. Involucral bracts ovate-cordate, caudate-acuminate at the tip, 5-veined from the base, pink or white with darker red or purple veins, the margins lacerate-toothed (ca 10 teeth on each side), pubescent on both sides, distinctly petiolate; blades mostly (2.5-)3.2-3.8 cm long; petiole ca 8-10 mm long; stipules reflexed, the two pairs unequal, larger stipules ca 8-10 mm long, 5-8 mm broad. Pistillate cymule with adaxial bractlets absent, abaxial bractlet concave, glabrous, ca 5-5.5 mm long, the margins ciliate (not glandular). Sta-involucel glabrous, of 4 distinct, broadly imbricate, chartaceous to subcoriaceous concave bracts; cp flowers 8 or 9; ceriferous bractlets fimbriate. Staminate flowers with pedicels ca 3.5-6 mm long, articulate near the top, glabrous below the articu-lation, hispidulous above; calyx-lobes 4, appressed-hispidulous without; stamens ca 20-30, the staminal column slender, 2.5-3.5 mm long, glabrous. Pistillate flowers with sepals 6-11, deeply pectinate-lobed, pubescent; ovary densely hispidulous, the style columnar, appressed-hispidulous, 3-5.5 mm long, the stigma peltate-disciform, ca 2-3.5 mm across. Central fruiting pedicel 1.9-2.5 cm long; fruiting sepals mostly 8-10 mm long, deeply dissected into rigid acuminate lanceolate lobes 2-5 mm long, lobes densely armed with stinging hairs. Capsules deeply 3-lobed, ca 12 mm in diam, the columella ca 5 mm long; seeds turgid, more or less cubical, asymmetrically crested, with low transverse ribbing, dark-mottled, 4.7-5.5 mm long.
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