Shrub, 0.5-1.5 m. Young stems erect, slender, moderately stellate-pubescent to glabrescent, with porrect sessile or variously stalked trichomes, the stalks to 0.2 mm long, the rays 6-8, ca. 0.2 mm long, the midpoints approximately the same length as the rays, armed with straight prickles 3-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide at base, deltate, flattened, pale yellow-orange, glabrous, spaced 5-20 mm apart; bark of older stems glabrescent, green-brown to dark brown. Sympodial units plurifoliate. Leaves lobed; blades 8-20 cm long, 5-15 cm wide, 1.5-2 times longer than wide, elliptic, chartaceous, drying concolorous to weakly discolorous, green-brown, moderately stellate-pubescent on both surfaces, with porrect, sessile or stalked trichomes, the stalks to 0.2 mm long, the rays 6-8, 0.2-0.5(-0.8) mm long, the midpoints approximately the same length as the rays, with 5-20 prickles on both surfaces; the primary veins 4-6 pairs, the tertiary venation clearly visible abaxially and not visible adaxially; base cuneate to truncate; margins lobed, the lobes 3-4 on each side, 1-3 cm long, deltate, apically obtuse to acute, extending approximately 1/3 of the distance to the midvein, often with secondary lobing; apex obtuse to acute; petiole 1-3 cm long, approximately 1/6 of the leaf blade length, moderately stellate-pubescent, with 0-5 prickles. Inflorescences apparently lateral, 3.5-9 cm long, rarely branched, with 6-15(-20) flowers, 1-4 flowers open at any one time, weakly stellate-pubescent, with 0(-5) prickles; peduncle 1-3 mm long; pedicels 1-2.3 cm long in long-styled flowers, 0.8-1.2 cm long in short-styled flowers, erect to pendent, articulated at the base, moderately stellate-pubescent to glabrescent, with 0-20 prickles on long-styled flowers, unarmed on short-styled flowers; pedicel scars spaced 2-8 mm apart. Flowers 5-merous, heterostylous and the plants andromonoecious, with the lowermost 1-3 flowers long-styled and hermaphroditic, the distal flowers short-styled and functionally male. Calyx 11-22 mm long in long-styled flowers, 5-9 mm long in short-styled flowers, the lobes 7-10 mm long in long-styled flowers, 3-4 mm long in short-styled flowers, ovate and foliaceous in long-styled flowers, deltate in short-styled flowers, apically bluntly acute in long-styled flowers and acute to obtuse in short-styled flowers, moderately stellate-pubescent, with 30-80 prickles in long-styled flowers and 0-30 prickles in short-styled flowers. Corolla 2.5-3.3 cm in diameter in long-styled flowers, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter in short-styled flowers, usually white or white with purple midveins, sometimes mauve, stellate, lobed for 1/4-1/2 of its length, the lobes ca. 7 mm long, ca. 10 mm wide in long-styled flowers, 6-10 mm long and 5-8 mm wide in short-styled flowers, broad-deltate, spreading, sparsely stellate-pubescent abaxially, the trichomes porrect, sessile or stalked, the stalks to 0.2 mm, the rays 5-8, 0.2-0.4 mm long, the midpoints approximately the same length as the rays. Stamens equal, with the filament tube 1-3 mm long, the free portion of the filaments ca. 0.5 mm long; anthers 5-6 mm long in long-styled flowers, 4.5-5.8 mm long in short-styled flowers, connivent, tapering, poricidal at the tips. Ovary glabrous, with a few stellate trichomes towards the apex; style 1.1-1.2 cm long in long-styled flowers, stout, straight or gently curved, moderately stellate-pubescent for most of its length. Fruit a spherical berry, 1(-2) per infructescence, 2.7-3.5 cm in diameter, the pericarp smooth, dark green with pale green and cream markings when young, yellow at maturity; fruiting pedicels 2-3 cm long, 1.2-2.2 mm in diameter at base, woody, pendulous, with 0-20 prickles; fruiting calyx not accrescent, covering 1/4-1/3 of the mature fruit, reflexed, with 10-80 prickles. Seeds ca. 100-200 per berry, 2.7-3.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, flattened-reniform, orange-brown.
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