Vines, coarse, twining, climbing; stems terete, with hirsute, fulvous ferrugi-nous pubescence. Leaves with leaflets coriaceous, the lamina broadly ovate, the terminal leaflet to ca. 17 cm long, 14 cm wide, the laterals to ca. 14 cm long, 11 cm wide, inequilateral, the upper surface rugose, glabrous except the midrib, the lower surface with dense, fulvous ferruginous or aureus erect trichomes of various lengths, the apices abruptly acute, the apex ca. 7 mm long, the bases rounded to cordate, the primary lateral veins in 11-14 pairs; petioles to 11 cm long, the rachis to 5 cm long, both fulvous hirsute; stipules to 15 mm long distally, probably 10 mm long below insertion (broken), striate, villous outside, sparsely pilose inside; stipels filiform, 5-10 mm long, pubescent. Inflorescences axillary, ca. 20 cm long, ferruginous tomentose, flowering 2/3 of length; tubercles short clavate with globose heads; bracts lanceolate, ca. 6 mm long, hirsute ferruginous outside and inside, caducous; bracteoles oval, ca. 4 x 4 mm, ferruginous pubescent outside, glabrous inside, persistent, with similar bractlets; pedicels ca. 5 mm long. Flowers with buds upcurved slightly at the calyx lobes, flowers ca. 1.8 cm long, calyx tube ca. 8 mm long with dense ferruginous pubescence, fulvous velutinous inside and extending up the lobes, the upper lobe blunt, emarginate, ca. 5 mm long, 10 mm wide, the lateral lobe lanceolate falcate, ca. 7 mm long, 4 mm wide, the lower lobe lanceolate, ca. 8 mm long, 3 mm wide; standard obovate, ca. 15 mm long, 9 mm wide with a claw ca. 4 mm long, the wings narrowly obovate, ca. 18 mm long, 9 mm wide with a claw ca. 6 mm long, the keels semiorbicular, ca. 10 mm long with a claw ca. 4 mm long, the upper margin basally auriculate with a supramedian lobe, the lower margin rising distally ca. 9 mm, culminating in a hooded beak; stamens 10, the base of the vexillary filament free ca. 3 mm, sparse-ly pubescent, the vexillary and alternate anthers of the staminal sheath imperfect, less than 0.5 mm long, perfect anthers ca. 1 mm long; pistil straight, ca. 11 mm, geniculate, rising distally ca. 9 mm, the ovary ca. 7 mm long, subsessile, fulvous
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canescent, the hairs to 2 mm long, 3-4-ovulate, the style frequently ?twisted, the lower style not swollen, with long, strigose hairs, the upper style glabrous, ca. 5 mm, the stigma capitate, terminal. Fruits turgid, fleshy, oblong, to ca. 9 cm long, 4.6 cm wide, 4.5 cm thick, probably indehiscent, the exocarp yellow brown with erect ferruginous hairs, the sutures indistinct; seeds 1 to few, soft, over-grown, probably similar to D. pulchra, with the hilum nearly 1/2 encircling. Dioclea aurea resembles D. pulchra in the hooded beak of the keel petals, the relatively small bracts and stipules, and the fruits and seeds. The primary differences are in the leaflets and indumentum, with D. aurea possessing coria-ceous and rugose leaflets and a coarser, more dense indumentum.
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