Large climber, glabrous, leafy stem 2-5 mm diam., sometimes lenticellate; dioecious. Probract rather thick, broadly ovate, concave, 3-8 by 2-5 mm, glands absent. Tendrils 2-or 3-branched. Leaves: petiole 3-6.5 cm long; petiolules 0.5-1.5 cm long; blade green on drying, membranous or chartaceous, 3-5-foliolate (simple and hastate in juvenile plants), in outline circular, c. 30 cm diam., not or little scabrous, with minute pale or dark dots, glands few or absent, scattered, 0.5 mm diam., cystoliths obvious; middle leaflet 9-18 by 3.5-10 cm, base rounded or cuneate, margin (sub)entire, apex acute-acuminate. Male raceme minutely brown hairy, glabrescent; peduncle 5-10 cm long, c. 2 mm thick; rachis not thickened, c. 15 cm long, c. 10-flowered; bracts persistent, rhomboid or broadly ovate, 20-30 by 15-25 mm, margin irregularly sharply incised to 4 mm deep, glands not obvious. Male flowers (from subsessile bud): sepals long-triangular, c. 5 mm long, 2 mm wide at base, subentire. Female flowers not known. Fruit ripening bright red, possibly somewhat striped at apex, broadly ovoid-ellipsoid, 9-16(-20) by 7-13(-17) cm; exocarp woody, smooth, 2-3 mm thick; pulp green-black; fruiting pedicel 1-3 cm long, 7-15 mm thick. Seeds blackish, compressed, ovate or narrowly elliptic, 20-27 by 11-15 by 4-6 mm, base subtruncate, apex narrowly rounded, margin broad but faint, edge entire.
Home