Monoecious, tendriled vines; stems 5-to 10-sulcate, hispidulous, puberulent, or glabrate. Leaves suborbicular, 5-15 cm long, as wide or slightly wider than long, shallowly to deeply 5-to 7-lobate, sometimes subentire, the apex rounded to acute, the base deeply cordate, the margin dentate, somewhat undulate, char-taceous, the upper surface scabrous with pustular-based trichomes, the lower surface scabrous; petioles 3-8 cm long, slender, hispid or pubescent, striate; ten-drils 2-to 3-branched, hispid or pubescent. Staminate flowers in axillary ra-cemes, the rachis 5-15 cm long, appressed puberulent; calyx campanulate, 5-lobate to 2/i its length, the lobes 5-8 mm long, lanceolate, acuminate, appressed pubescent; petals yellow, obovate, 8-15 mm long, mucronate, glabrate; stamens 3, free, the filaments 2-3 mm long, slender ciliate at the base, the anthers flexu-ous. Pistillate flowers solitary, axillary; peduncles 1-2 cm long; calyx and corolla as in the staminate flowers; ovary fusiform, ca. 1 cm long, appressed pubescent, tuberculate, 3-carpellate, the ovules numerous, horizontal, the styles connate, the stigmas 3, bilobate, irregularly curved and coralloid, densely papillate, the stami-nodia 5, ca. 1 mm long, puberulent. Fruits green or gray green, ellipsoidal, 5-10 cm long, 8-to 10-costate, costae tuberculate or shortly echinate, puberulent, gla-brate in age, dehiscent by a conical, long-beaked operculumn; seeds gray or brown, faintly mottled with darker markings, ovoid, compressed, 6-10 mirm long, 4-5 mm wide, 2 oblique bumps present above the hilum on each face, the testa smooth or rugulose.
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A pumpkin family herb. The flowers are yellow. The fruit is dark brown when mature.
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