Perennial with tuberous rootstock, climbing or trailing to 4 m.. Stems herbaceous, angled, ± crisped-pubescent.. Leaves pedately 3–5-foliolate; middle leaflet largest, elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, ovate or broadly ovate, obtuse or subtruncate at the base, acuminate, slightly apiculate, subentire and remotely denticulate to distinctly sinuate-toothed, almost glabrous to distinctly pubescent, 27–130 mm. long, 9–50 mm. broad; lateral leaflets similar but smaller and with blunter apices, sometimes lobed on the outer side at the base; central petiolule 4–27 mm. long; petiole 7–40 mm. long.. Tendrils bifid, rarely simple.. Dioecious or monoecious.. Male flowers 5–15, subumbellate on a 40–80 mm. long peduncle; bract subtending pedicels broadly obovate-orbicular, 13–30 mm. long, 7–40 mm. broad; pedicels 5–10 mm. long; receptacle-tube cylindrical below, expanded, campanulate above, like the lobes dark brownish-green to purplish or almost black, sometimes green with darker nerves, 9–11 mm. long; lobes broadly triangular or triangular-acuminate, acute, 3–12 mm. long; corolla pale yellow or pale orange-yellow with darker throat and a dark purple or black eye; petals free, lingulate, slightly apiculate, 12–15 mm. long, 6–8 mm. broad; basal scales 2, obsolescent; stamens 3; thecae straight, those of one double stamen very unequal; connective narrow.. Female flowers ebracteate, pubescent, on 11–13 mm. long stalks; ovary shortly hairy, fusiform and beaked, 10-ribbed, 30–35 mm. long, 4–5 mm. across; receptacle-tube shallow, 3 mm. long; lobes triangular-acuminate, 6–11 mm. long; style long.. Fruit on a 23–60 mm. long stalk, spindle-shaped, beaked, with ± 10 toothed longitudinal wings or ridges, fleshy, orange, ± 60 mm. long and 20 mm. across, dehiscent into 3 valves.. Seeds many, tumid, ± 8 × 7 × 4 mm.; faces with rugose sculpturing; margins shallowly grooved, smooth (fig. 3/13, p. 25).
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Leaves compound, pedately 3–5-foliolate; median leaflet 2·5–13 × 1–5 cm., narrowly ovate to ovate or elliptic, obtuse to subtruncate at the base, remotely denticulate to sinuate-dentate, acutely-acuminate, apiculate, sparsely to distinctly rather finely setulose above and mainly on veins beneath; lateral leaflets smaller, unequal-based; petiolule of median leaflet 0·4–2·7 cm. long; petiole 0·7–5·5 cm. long.
male flowers 5–6(15), in bracteate pedunculate subumbelliform fascicles; peduncle 4–8 cm. long; bract 10–30 mm. long, closely subtending the flowers, obovate-orbicular, cucullate; pedicels 3–5(10) mm. long. Receptacle-tube 9–11 mm. long, lobes (3)6–8(12) mm. long, purplish, triangular, acute-attenuate. Petals 1–1·5 cm. long, pale yellow, dark at the base, oblong-ovate.
Female flowers on 1·1–1·3 cm. long peduncles; ovary 30–35 × 4–5 mm., fusiform, ridged. Receptacle-tube 3 mm. long, lobes 6–11 mm. long, triangular-acuminate.
Fruit c. 6 × 2 cm., fusiform, rostrate, longitudinally winged or ridged, orange, dehiscent into 3 valves; fruit-stalk 2·3–6 cm. long.
Stems prostrate or scandent to 4 m. or more, ± crispate-pubescent especially at nodes, arising from perennial tuberous rootstock.
Seeds c. 8 × 7 × 4 mm., tumid, with rugose faces and smooth grooved margins.
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