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Rootstock unknown. Stem twining to left, minutely yellow puberulent, prickly. Leaves alternate, palmately (3 or)5-or 7(or 9)-foliolate; petiole 7--9 cm; middle leaflet lanceolate, 8--12.5(--18) × 3--4.2 cm, ± herbaceous, puberulent, glabrescent except along veins, pinnately veined, base attenuate into indistinct petiolule, margin entire, apex caudate-acuminate; lateral leaflets obliquely elliptic, 6.5--9 × 2.3--3.2 cm, usually ± 2-veined from near base. Male spikes to 1.5 cm, in axillary panicles to 50 cm with 2 levels of branching, most parts densely gray tomentose. Male flowers: solitary; pedicel to 0.6 mm; bract and bracteoles forming involucel around perianth, bract cordate, ca. 1.5 mm, longer than perianth, bracteoles ovate, equaling perianth, tomentose, apex caudate; perianth drying dark, glabrescent, outer lobes oblong-ovate, to 2 mm, inner ones slightly smaller than outer; stamens 3; staminodes longer than stamens. Female spike solitary, 16--30 cm. Capsule oblong, 4--5 cm, puberulent when young, glabrescent, base cuneate, apex rounded; wings 0.9--1.3 cm wide. Seeds inserted near apex of capsule; wing pointing toward capsule base, ca. 0.9 × 0.5 cm. Fl. Apr, fr. Aug--Feb.
A yam. It keeps growing from year to year by shooting from the tubers. The vine is prickly. It twines to the left. The leaves are compound with 3-5-7 leaflets. They are arranged like fingers on a hand. They are covered with short soft brown hairs. There are 4 to 6 side nerves on the leaves. The leaf stalk is as long as the middle leaflet. The leaflet stalks are 1 cm long. The leaflets can be 18 cm long. The male flower is on the uppermost leaf axils and the female flowers are scattered on other leaf axils. The male flowering stalk is 70 cm long. The female flower stalks bear up to 30 flowers. The capsule is 2.5-4 cm long. It has wings.
