Rhizome usually 3--10-branched, to 20 cm, each end enlarged into a globose or ellipsoid tuber ca. 5 cm in diam.; cork yellowish white; transverse section white. Stem twining to left, brown or white puberulent, glabrescent except at nodes, sparsely prickly. Leaves alternate, palmately 3-foliolate, simple distally on stem; middle leaflet lanceolate or subelliptic, 7--20 × 3--11 cm, pinnately veined, veins white pubescent, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acuminate; lateral leaflets ovate-elliptic, base obliquely cuneate, apex acute. Male spike branched, to 20 cm. Male flowers: sessile or subsessile; bract and bracteole broadly triangular-ovate, margin white pubescent abaxially; stamens 3. Capsule straw-colored at maturity, long ellipsoid, 2--3 cm, base slightly cordate, apex rounded; wings ca. 0.8 cm wide. Seeds inserted near apex of capsule; wing pointing toward capsule base. Fl. Sep--Oct, fr. Dec--Feb.
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