Trichosanthes edulis var. sativa Rugayah

Plant glabrescent. Probract 5-10 mm long. Leaves: blade chartaceous, drying dark brown, shallowly 3-lobed or 3-5-angular, to halfway deep, rarely unlobed, broadly ovate or subcircular in outline, to 20 cm long, glabrous or glabrescent above and beneath, margin entire, or finely or coarsely dentate; veins 5. Male raceme to 20 cm long, dark brown short-woolly hairy; peduncle not seen; bracts narrowly elliptic or rhomboid, 10-20 mm long, irregularly dentate. Female flowers: as the species. Fruit pyriform-ellipsoid, to c. 25 cm long when fresh; fruiting pedicel c. 4.5 cm long, c. 5 mm thick. Seeds brown, compressed, narrowly (elliptic) or obtriangular, 10-12 by 5-8 by c. 1 mm, shallowly or deeply notched on one or both ends, edge entire or finely crenulate, not grooved in the middle.

It is a tropical plant. In PNG it has been recorded near Pomio, East New Britain.