Herb, woody below, or shrub, the stem erect, 1.5-3 m high, branched above, long-hirsute-hispid with mostly simple hairs, sometimes also with scattered, smaller, stellate hairs. Leaves with the petiole slender, terete, 1.5-20 cm long, gradually shorter toward the apex, long-hirsute-hispid and sometimes sparsely stellate-puberulus, the stipules subulate-filiform, ca 3 mm long; blade up to 22 cm long and 18 cm broad, gradually smaller toward the apex, the lobes obtuse or acute to long-acuminate, thin-chartaceous, nearly concolorous, 5-to 9-palminerved, strigose on both surfaces, the upper surface mostly with simple hairs, the lower surface densely stellate-puberulus and with the venation prominulous, the indumentum very dense when young. Flowers with the pedicel very slender, 2-9 cm long, long-hirsute and often also shortly stellate-puberulus; calyx ca 13-14 mm long, densely deflexed-his-pid at the base, stellate-pubescent elsewhere, the lobes broadly ovate', acuminate, ca 8-9 mm long and 7 mm broad at the base; petals subeircular or transversely broadly elliptic, markedly unguiculate, the claw ca 4-5 mm long and densely barbate at the margins, the blade ca 11-13 mm long and 17-19 mm broad, lilac to purple; androecium ca 10 mm long, the staminal tube ca 5-6 mm long, densely villous. Fruit up to 2.5 cm high and 3 cm in diam at maturity, the mericarps greatly in-flated, the basal awns up to 6 mm long, the pericarp thin-chartaceous and hispid with short and long, stellate hairs; seeds ca 3-3.5 mm long.
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