Slender woody climber up to c. 15 m, entirely gla-brous. Roots tuberous, fusiform. Leaves: petioles (2—)3 —5(—10) cm long; lamina lanceolate to broadly ovate, 6-17 by 2.5-10.5(-14) cm, apex usually at-tenuately acute or caudate, base broadly rounded to slightly cordate; reticulation usually rather lax and not prominent, ± equally visible on both surfaces; papyraceous. Male inflorescences usually axillary (sometimes borne on leafless parts of the stem) com-posed of several, peduncled, disciform capitula arising in the axils of persistent, triangular to linear bracts 1-2 mm along an axis usually less than 1 cm long, occasionally to 14 cm on old stems; capitula 3-6(-8) mm in 0 on filiform peduncles up to 20 (-35) mm long. Male flowers sessile, yellow to green, very densely crowded on a disciform receptacle; sepals 2-3, ± oblong-elliptic, 0.5-0.75 mm long; petals 2-3, ± obovate, 0.25 mm long; synandrium 1 mm long, exserted. Female inflorescence as in male, but axis and peduncles thicker, especially at fruiting, also peduncles longer, up to 55 mm. Female flowers with very short pedicels, about 1 mm, sometimes partly united; sepals and petals as in male; carpel ± ovoid or ellipsoidal, c. 1 mm long. Drupe red, with slender pedicels 5-10 mm, obovate (to sub-orbicular) in outline, sometimes attenuated towards the base (6—)8— 11 by (5-)6-8 mm. Endocarp per-forate, dorsally bearing 4 longitudinal rows of 10-14 capitate projections divaricately lobed at their apices (rarely the projections scarcely developed).
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