Underground a short horizontal rhizome with an uneven surface, scars of a few more or less amplexicaul scale-leaves and white flesh. Plant glabrous except for a minute scurf on the inflorescences. Stems climbing to 5 m, faintly ridged at the base where they are 2-3 mm in diam.: ridges 3 from each leaf-base. A few scale-leaves are produced before the first assimilating leaves. Lower leaves to 25 by 18 cm, the largest 11-nerved, in appearance exactly as those of S. dioscoreifolia. Panicles smaller than in that species but otherwise similar. Flowers with shorter and broader perianth lobes; the lobes usually to 4 mm in length, rounded at the apex in specimens from Borneo, bluntly pointed in specimens from Mindanao (var. mindanaensis R. KNUTH); the rest of the flower as in S. dioscoreifolia, capsule perhaps shorter.
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