Rhizome horizontal, irregularly branched, cylindric, curved; cork dark brown. Stem twining to left, glabrous, smooth. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 4.5--10 cm; leaf blade drying greenish, palmately 3-or 5-lobed basally on stem, ovate-lanceolate distally on stem, 8--15 × 7--15 cm, ?glabrous, base deeply cordate to truncate, or rounded on distal leaves, margin entire, apex acuminate. Male spikes usually branched, to 7 cm, in diffuse, axillary panicles to 20 cm, panicles sometimes with leafy bracts. Male flowers: solitary or in cymules of 2--4, some flowers sterile; pedicel ca. 2 mm; bracts scalelike, to 1 mm; bracteole ± obsolete; perianth funnelform, ca. 2 mm, lobes not spreading at anthesis, ovoid; stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth. Female spikes to 20 cm; rachis very slender. Capsule reflexed, light brown, glossy, 1.5--1.8 cm, base truncate to rounded, apex truncate; wings 0.8--1.2 cm wide. Seeds inserted near middle of capsule, dark brown, winged all round. Fl. Aug--Oct, fr. Sep--Dec.
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