Perennial climber to 8 m long, most parts (excluding inflorescences) glabrous, older bark whitish grey, fissured, not tuberculate; dioecious. Leaves: petiole 2-4 cm long, without or with few glands in the upper half; blade entire, sometimes coriaceous, hardly foetid when crushed, greenish on drying, (narrowly) ovate-elliptic, (7-)9-15(-20) by 4-9(-12) cm, ± shiny on both sides, glands on blade surface absent, sometimes present on the basal blade margin, base truncate or cordate, margin entire or variously (sparsely) sharply dentate, sometimes only one sharp tooth on each basal lobe, apex subobtuse or acute-acuminate; veins 3(-5) palmate from base, ascending, and few pinnate from midrib, intercostal venation sharp, forming areoles c. 1 mm diameter. Flowers very like those of M. cochinchinensis, somewhat scabrous or hairy, in male solitary or up to 30 grouped in bracteate racemes to 5(-15) cm long; petals creamy-white, hairy or bearded towards the base, the three inner ones with or without a black blotch at base. Male flowers: stalk with bract subapical; peduncle 2-8 cm long, glabrous or minutely hairy; bract circular or broadly ovate, (15-)20-35(-50) mm diam., scabrid on both surfaces, base cordate, margin finely minutely hairy, apex obtuse or acute, with or without glands; pedicel 5(-15) mm long; receptacle tube saucer-shaped, 2-3 by 8-12(-15) mm, ± blackish or not; sepals subcoriaceous, (narrowly ovate or) triangular, 10-15 by 5-8 mm, acute(-acuminate), blackish green or yellow-brown, somewhat scabrous; petals (narrowly) elliptic, 30-50 mm long, apex rounded or acute(-acuminate), distinctly veined, scales broad, lingulate, 5-7 by 5 mm, yellow, directed to the base of the androecium, rendering the perianth somewhat irregular; androecium 6-10 mm long; thecae with or without appendage. Female flowers: stalk (peduncle and pedicel) 4-6 cm long; bract acute, 2-3 mm long, inserted near the base of the stalk; ovary fusiform, narrowed in the apical part, 18-25 by 4-5 mm, densely minutely hairy; receptacle tube c. 3 mm wide; sepals linear, 7-8(-10) mm long, acute; style slender, 5-7 mm long. Fruit ripening green-yellow or red, (ovoid-)ellipsoid-oblong, 8-14 by 5-10 cm, apex narrowed into 10(-15) mm long beak, exocarp ± leathery, without ornamentation, sometimes minutely scabrid; fruit stalk 5-10 cm long, with bract scar near the base. Seeds numerous, brown blackish, compressed, subcircular, cogwheel-shaped, 20-30 mm across, 6-7 mm thick; margin with a double row of c. 10 blunt wart-like bulges, faces finely sculptured in a blotchy pattern.
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