Large herb or small shrub to 3 m tall; twigs stout, tomentose with long-armed, multangulate hairs on long, multiseriate stalks and armed with short or long, stout, flattened, yellowish spines. Leaves large, often exceeding 30 cm long, broadly ovate, shallowly sinuate-lobed, the lobes acuminate, the tips often glabrous above and mucronate, above with a mixture of sessile, porrect, pauci-radiate hairs with long midpoints and long, multiseriate, stalked, multangulate hairs, these latter often deciduous, beneath more densely clothed with mostly stalked stellae and suffused with purple, at least when young, armed or not on the major veins; petioles to 15 cm long, stout, tomentose and often armed. Inflorescence a congested fascicle or sub-umbellate raceme on a short, stout peduncle; pedicels to 10 mm long, the tomentum in part infused with purple. Calyx 10 cm long, lobed 1/2 the way down, the lobes deltoid, densely purplish tomentose outside and, except for the villous tips, glabrous within; corolla white, unequally lobed almost to the base, 5 cm across, densely tomentose outside, glabrous within; anthers subsessile, very stout at the base and narrowly abruptly in the upper 1/3, the slender tips bent outwards to allow the terminal pores to dehisce extrorsely; ovary densely tomentose, style glabrous. Fruits large, to 6 cm across, a yellow-orange, juicy berry, glabrescent but scabridulous until maturity, the pericarp thin, 5-10 mm thick, enclosing large, many-seeded locules; seeds lenticular-discoid, scrobiculate, with narrow but distinct wings, 3-4 mm across overall.
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A small shrub up to 2 m high. It is hairy or thorny. The leaves are large (60 cm) and angular and hairy on both surfaces. They have thorns along the veins. Young leaves are purple. The flowers are pale violet and 2-4 cm across. The fruit are produced in clusters on the trunk. The fruit is bright orange in colour and covered with short hairs which can be removed by rubbing. The fruit is about 6 cm across. The flesh is yellow-orange to green. It has numerous small edible seeds.
A tropical plant. It suits the highland areas in the tropics. The best altitude is probably 800 to 2000 m. In the Andes it grows between 1,500-2,800 m altitude. The temperatures are 14-22°C. It is frost sensitive. It likes humidity. It grows well with rainfall of 1,500 mm per year. It suits hardiness zones 10-12.
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