Subherbaceous climber, 2-8 m long, minutely hairy (except inflorescences), glabrescent, leafy stem 1.5-3.5 mm diam.; dioecious or monoecious. Probract absent or very small. Tendrils unbranched (rarely 2-branched). Leaves: petiole (1.5-)4 cm long; blade brown-green on drying, simple, unlobed or 3(-5)-lobed occasionally to the base, never foliolate, in outline (narrowly) ovate, subcircular when lobed, 8-15 by 4-7(-19) cm, faintly scabrous, glands several to many, scattered, cystoliths abundant, but small, base cordate, margin entire, apex of lobes acute-acuminate. Inflorescences: either racemes male, or racemes of male flowers mixed with some female ones, or few female flowers in a short raceme (1-3.5 cm long) or female flowers single at the nodes, wholly densely hairy, especially bracts and flowers, hairs 0.1 mm long, brown. Male raceme: peduncle 5-20 cm long; rachis 4-16.5 cm long, 2-3 mm thick, 5-40-flowered; bracts persistent, (narrowly) ovate, 6-15 mm long, margin coarsely dentate, apex acute, glands several to many. Male flowers: pedicel 3-6 mm long, persistent; receptacle-tube 30-40 mm long, at throat 6-7 mm wide, at base broadened into a semi-globose pseudo-ovary 3-5 mm diam.; sepals narrowly elliptic, 6-8 by 2-2.5 mm, entire; petals ± obdeltoid, 10 mm long, threads 10 mm long; synandrium slightly exserted, truncate at apex, ± narrower at base and entering into the narrowed portion of the receptacle-tube, c. 9 by 3.5 mm, anthers fused, filaments glabrous, c. 1 mm long, inserted c. 5 mm below the receptacle-throat (attached to the synandrium well above its base); disc c. 3 by 3-4 mm, largely fused with the receptacle-tube, in dry specimens causing the pseudo-ovary (see note 2). Female flowers: pedicel 6-10 mm long, ovary (sub)glabrous, c. 9 by 5 mm; receptacle-tube c. 30 mm long; sepals narrow, 5 mm long. Fruit mostly solitary, green, ripening evenly red, ovoid or globose, 6-9 by 6-7 cm, pericarp when fresh 5(-10) mm thick, much thinner when dry; fruiting pedicel 1.5(-4) cm long, c. 3 mm thick. Seeds brown, compressed, (narrowly) elliptic, 15(-20) mm long (see note 3), 7-9 mm wide, base truncate-rounded, margin narrow and a low ridge in the middle, edge entire.
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