Clambering vine; stems twining, 2-4 mm thick, striate-ribbed, retrorsely in-curved-pubescent. Leaves alternate; stipules 3-5 mm long, caducous; petiole pubes-cent as the stem, (1.5-)2.5-14 cm long; stipels lanceolate, 1-3.5 mm long, pubescent, more or less glandular at the base; blades polymorphic, of 3 kinds-(a) undivided blades: ovate, cordate and 5-veined at the base, (6-) 10-16 cm long, (5-)7-11 cm broad; (b) blades with one lateral lobe (as in Sassafras); and (c) 3-lobed blades, lobed more deeply than 1/2 way to the base, 7-16 cm long, 8-17 cm broad, the middle lobe oblong to obovate, ? abruptly acute or acuminate, (4-)6-11 cm long, (2-)2.5-4(-6) cm broad; margins finely serrulate or subentire, the lamina densely pubescent to tomentose beneath, with a reticulum of conspicuously raised veins. Inflorescences 1 or sometimes 2 per short axillary shoot, the axis (3-)7-25 cm long; peduncles (1-) 1.5-4 cm long at anthesis, becoming (1-)2.5-7 cm long in fruit, the involucral bracts broadly ovate, 3-toothed at the tip (middle tooth 3-7 mm long), generally 7-9-veined from the base, tomentose on both sides, dis-tinctly whitish at anthesis, (2-)3.5-5(-6) cm long, becoming green in fruit, (3.5)4-6 cm long; stipules 2-4.5 mm long. Pistillate cymule with auriculate adaxial bractlet, subglabrous, the margins ciliate, 5.5-6.5 mm high, 10-11 mm broad; abaxial bractlet broadly ovate or obovate, 5-7 mm high, 8-11 mm broad. Staminate cymule with stout peduncle 3.5-5 mm long, sparingly to densely hirsutulous; involucel 2-lipped, subglabrous; lip facing bract entire, reniform, 2.5-3 mm high, 7-10 mm broad, the lip facing female cymule 3-parted, the lateral lobes broadly obovate, the center lobe oblong to obovate; male flowers 9 or 10; ceriferous bractlets conspicuously fimbriate at the tips, secretion resinous and sticky. Stami-nate flowers with slender pedicels 4-8 mm long, articulated at about 2/3 height; mature buds ca 3-4 mm in diam; calyx-lobes (3-)4-6, 3.3-3.8 mm long; stamens (25-)30-45, the staminal column rather slender, 2.5-4 mm long, the free filaments densely hispidulous. Pistillate flowers with calyx-lobes 9-12, fimbriately lobed (ca 6-10 gland-tipped lobes on each side); ovary densely hispidulous, the style cylin-drical, slender, 7-12 mm long, the stigma peltate-concave, 1.3-2.7 mm in diam. Central fruiting pedicel ca 1-1.8 cm long, laterals shorter; fruiting calyx-lobes mostly 8-13 mm long, 0.9-2 mm broad, with densely hispid subulate lobes. Cap-sules 9.5-10.3 mm in diam, densely hispid, the cocci 6.5-8.5 mm long; seeds some-what compressed, elliptic in outline, (3.3-)3.7-4.8 mm long, ricinoid-mottled.
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