Tubers very like those of D. pyrifolia, flesh edible. Stems abundantly armed with rather small prickles in the lower parts but unarmed above, climbing to 30 m, densely pubescent, faintly ridged under the pubescence. Bulbils none seen. Leaves opposed, herbaceous, elliptic-cordate or exactly cordate, or more rarely oblong (var. velutina O. K.), acuminate, usually to 12 by 12, but occasionally attaining 25 by 22 cm, 7-nerved, retaining a thin pubescence on the upper surface and more pubescence on the lower; petiole at times prickly, up to 4(-6) cm. Male flowering axes 1-4 together, aggregated on leafless branches which rise in the axils of upper leaves and attain 30 cm in length; axes conspicuously longer if at the base of one of these large inflorescences than towards the end, with a characteristic short sterile part at the base below the flowers as a stalk 2-5 mm long, their total length to 2-2½ cm. Flowers about 20 or more, usually touching each other though not in var. oblongifolia; pubescent axis angled under the pubescence. Buds more or less globose above a flattened base, 1 mm long. Female flowering axes to 20 cm long, covered with tawny hairs; bracts densely pubescent ovate, acute, 2 mm long. Capsules becoming glabrous as they grow to full size; apex retuse; base truncate; wings to 25 by 20 mm; stipe to 5 mm.
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