Slender, erect, short-lived perennial shrub to 2 m, silvery-green, male or female, densely pubescent with stellate hairs; prickles to 6 mm long, few or absent on most parts. Leaves mostly ovate to elliptic; lamina 9–-25 cm long, 4.5–15 cm wide, slightly discolorous, deeply lobed; lobes linear, to 17 cm long; petiole 1–2, sometimes to 5 cm long. Leaves on mature flowering stems sometimes linear-lanceolate, the lamina up to 15 cm long and 1 cm wide. Male plant: inflorescence 12–20-flowered; peduncle 1–2 cm long; rachis 2–4 cm long; pedicels 5 mm long; calyx 4–5 mm long, the lobes triangular, c. 3.5 mm long; corolla broadly stellate, 30–45 mm diam., purple; anthers 7–9 mm long. Female plant: flowers solitary; pedicel to 2 cm long; calyx 15–27 mm long, enlarged in fruit, the tube globose, lobes linear, unequal, 10–12 mm long; corolla broadly stellate, to 50 mm diam., purple, lobes with slender apices 2–5 mm long; anthers 7–10 mm long. Berry to 2 cm diam., shining green or purplish when ripe, drying within calyx and splitting around circumferemce towards base to form loose cap; fruiting calyx 15–20 mm diam. Seeds 2.5–3 mm long, black.
Home