Woody vine 8-10 m long. Stems trigonous or pentagonous, 5-costate, tomentulose or appressed-pubescent, producing scarce or no milky latex, cross section with a large central, trigonous vascular cylinder, and (1) 3 smaller peripheral cylinders. Stipules ligulate, 12-20 mm long, appressed-pubescent. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate; petioles and rachis unwinged or marginate, appressed-pubescent; petioles 7-18 cm long; rachis 4-9 cm long; petiolules appressed-pubescent, lateral ones 4-5 mm long, distal one 1-1.5 cm long; leaflets chartaceous to coriaceous, 10-19 × 4.8-10.5 cm (distal leaflet larger), lateral leaflets ovate, oblong-elliptical or sublanceolate, distal leaflet rhombate, the apex acuminate, the base attenuate or cuneate on distal leaflet, obtuse or rounded on lateral ones, the margins remotely serrate, the teeth mucronate; both surfaces sparsely appressed-pubescent along primary and secondary veins, abaxial surface with minute dark papillae; tertiary veins subclathrate. Thyrses pubescent, cauliflorous and fascicled, 2-7 cm long, or axillary, racemiform, solitary, and bearing tendrils, 10-25 cm long, or in short fascicles, without tendrils, 2-7 cm long; cincinni long-stipitate (3-5 mm long), few-flowered, secund; bracts and bracteoles minute (< 1 mm long), deltate. Calyx puberulent, sepals 5, oblong, slightly concave, outer sepals ca. 3 mm long, inner sepals 4.5-5 mm long. Capsule red, orange, or pinkish, puberulent, coriaceous, 1.2-1.5 cm long, long-stipitate (3-5 mm long), with turbinate outline and 3 dorsal wings that taper down on the stipe and slightly project at apex as a round lobe, locule ellipsoid; endocarp papery, minutely wooly. Seed usually one per fruit, ellipsoid, ca. 10 mm long, dark brown, sparsely appressed-pubescent, with a thick, white, bilobed sarcotesta on lower ⅓.
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