Dioecious, tendriled vines; stems 5-to 10-sulcate, pilose. Leaves simple, blade ovate to suborbicular, entire or 3-to 5-lobate, 10-25 cm long, nearly as wide as long, the apex acuminate to caudate, the base cordate, the margin denticulate, submembranaceous to chartaceous, the upper surface minutely pustulate, the upper and the lower surfaces pilose; petioles 2-6 cm long, slender, striate, pilose; tendrils, simple, pilose. Staminate flowers in axillary, usually long pedunculate, capituliform racemes, the rachis densely pilose; peduncles to 40 cm long; flowers sessile or subsessile; calyx orange, urceolate, the outer surface pilose, the inner surface glabrous, lobes ca. 1.5 cm long, filiform, erect or slightly spreading, pilose on the outer surface; corolla yellow, the lobes equalling or slightly longer than the calyx lobes, filiform, densely papillose puberulent on both the surfaces; sta-mens 2, attached to the hypanthium wall, subsessile, the anthers ovate subrec-tangular, 2.5-3.0 mm long, replicate at both ends, without appendix. Pistillate flowers solitary or several at the leafless nodes on the upper part of the stem; calyx and corolla as in the staminate flowers but glabrous on the inner surfaces; ovary elliptical, pilose, ovules numerous, horizontal, the styles 2, connate, thick, the stigmas 2, emarginate at the apex, the inner surface papillose and medially grooved, subequalling the style column. Fruit oblong, pilose, 3.5-4.5 cm long, 2.5-3.0 cm in diameter, the old flowers persisting; seeds numerous, light brown, elliptical, compressed, 10-12 mm long, 5-6 mm wide, the margin somewhat thick-ened, the testa roughened.
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