Woody vine 2-10 m long. Stems 4-5-costate, setose, not producing milky sap; cross section with a single vascular cylinder. Stipules persistent, to 1.5 cm long, deeply dissected, setose, with ovate or widely ovate outline. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate; petioles and rachis terete, unwinged, setose, petioles 6-15 cm long, rachis 5-7 cm long; leaflets chartaceous, hispidulous, especially along margins, elliptic to lanceolate, 8-21 × 3.2-7.5 cm, the base cuneate on distal leaflets, obtuse to rounded on lateral ones, the apex narrowed into a long, fine cusp, the margins remotely denticulate or less often entire; tertiary veins clathrate. Thyrses paniculate or racemose, densely flowered, setose; bracteoles subulate, 7-10 mm long, overlapping, with long, ciliate margins; cincinni sessile, few-flowered; pedicel ca. 3 mm long. Calyx green, of 5 sepals, the two outer ones ca. 2.4 mm long, ovate, cucullate, appressed-pubescent, the inner ones 3-3.5 mm long, ovate to rounded; petals greenish white, obovate, ca. 4 mm long, sparsely papillate; appendages hood-shaped, ½ as long as the petals, with a fleshy, yellow crest at the apex and wooly margins; disc of 4 rounded to ovoid lobes, glabrous; torus pilose; filaments glabrous. Capsules triquetrous (each locule with a narrow dorsal wing along its entire length), red, chartaceous, one-seeded, densely setose to hispid, with an elliptic or oblanceolate outline; endocarp ferruginous-tomentose. Seed ellipsoid, dark brown to black, with white, lobed sarcotesta on lower ½.
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