Climber.. Young stems herbaceous, dark green, glabrous; older stems thickened and woody with light brown papery bark.. Leaf-blade somewhat fleshy, ovate-cordate, dark green, glabrous, acute to rounded, sometimes shortly acuminate and apiculate, entire or remotely and obscurely sinuate-denticulate, 55–85 mm. long, 50–75 mm. broad, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed or angled; petiole 30–40 mm. long.. Tendrils simple.. Monoecious.. Male flowers ± 7, subumbellate on a 25–43 mm. long peduncle and subtended by a sessile obovate-cordate 17–27 mm. long 17–35 mm. broad bract; pedicels 6–7 mm. long, slightly hairy, subtended individually by small lanceolate 3 mm. long bracts with ciliate margins and clasping bases; receptacle-tube obconic, 4 mm. long; lobes triangular-lanceolate, acute, 7.5–9 mm. long; corolla somewhat zygomorphic; petals 13 mm. long, 6 mm. broad, the outer 2 with basal scales; stamens 2, 1 triple, 3-lobed and 2-thecous, the other double; thecae arcuate.. Female flowers on ± 7 mm. long stalks; ovary fusiform, 13–20 mm. long, 2.5–3 mm. across, longitudinally ribbed; receptacle-tube shallow, 2 mm. long; lobes triangular or narrowly so, acute, ± 5 mm. long, slightly concave inside; petals 5, 2 with a small and 1 with a very small scale inside at the base; staminodes 5, in 2 pairs with 1 separate, gland-like.. Fruit on a stalk about 25 mm. long, fleshy, ovoid, green with 8 fleshy longitudinal undulate ridges or wings meeting at the base without coalescing into a disk, 42–55 mm. long, 15–40 mm. across.. Seeds (fig. 3/9, p. 25) sphaeroid, ± 9 × 4.5 × 4 mm.; testa smooth, sculptured in low relief.
Home