Climber to 20 m long, glabrous, leafy stem 2-5 mm diam., young shoots green; dioecious or occasionally monoecious. Probract (narrowly) obovate, 5-10(-20) mm long, entire, glands present. Tendrils (2-)3-5-branched. Leaves: petiole 2.5-11 cm long; blade blackish on drying, membranous, simple, unlobed or shallowly 5(-7)-angular or (shallowly) lobed, lobes (shallowly) triangular, blade in outline subcircular, 8.5-24 by 8-21 cm, ± scabrous above, glands several to many, close to the vein axils, particularly several in the axils of the main veins at the very base of the blade, 0.5-1 mm diam., cystoliths sometimes obvious above, margin entire or coarsely remotely dentate; veins 5-7, straight. Male raceme sometimes at base with 1 or 2 female or hermaphroditic flowers (see note in Rugayah 1999), glabrescent; peduncle 2-8(-12) cm long, 2-3 mm thick; rachis not thickened, 3-10 cm long, 2-3 mm thick, 5-10-flowered; bracts subpersistent, (ob)ovate-elliptic or ± rhomboid, 10-30 mm long, margin (sub)entire (rarely ± dentate in East Malesia), with glands near the midrib. Male flowers: pedicel 2-5(-25) mm long, (sub)caducous; receptacle-tube 40-50 mm long, at throat 10 mm wide; sepals long-triangular, 12-20(-30) mm long, 2-3 mm wide at base, usually with few slender sidelobes; petals obovate or broadly cuneate, 20(-30) mm long, threads 10(-15) mm long; synandrium 8 mm long, filaments glabrous, 3 mm long. Female flowers: pedicel (5-)10-20 mm long; ovary glabrous, (ovoid-)ellipsoid, 8-10 by 5-6 mm; receptacle-tube 50-60 mm long; sepals smaller and narrower than in male, entire. Fruit ripening evenly red, (depressed) globose, rarely slightly ellipsoid, (4.5-)6-8.5 cm diam., apex not beaked; exocarp leathery; pericarp firm-carnose, dry pericarp 8-15 mm thick; pulp green-black, bitter; fruiting pedicel 1.5-2.5 cm long, 3-5 mm thick, usually curved. Seeds light brown, compressed, (narrowly) elliptic, 9-14 by 4-5 by 1-2 mm, base cuneate (chisel-shaped), apex rounded or acute, margin absent, edge entire.
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Petiole 5-11 cm, striate, punctate; leaf blade adaxially deep green, quinquangular or broadly ovate, 13-22 × 12-20 cm, membranous, shortly 5-lobed or up to middle; lobes broadly triangular or ovate-triangular, abaxially glabrous, adaxially glandular punctate and rough, margin denticulate, apex long acuminate. Plants monoecious. Male raceme 17-30 cm; peduncle glabrous, striate, 8-10-flowered; bracts ovate, 3.5-4.3 × ca. 2.5 cm, with 2 rows of brownish puncta beside main vein, entire, apex long acuminate; calyx segments linear-lanceolate, 2-3 × 0.2-0.3 cm, margin sharply 2-or 3-lobed, apex long acuminate. Female flowers not seen. Fruiting peduncle 2-3 cm, glabrous; fruit red, globose, 5-7 cm, glabrous. Seeds brown, triangular-ovate, 1-1.2 × 0.4-0.5 cm, base attenuate, apex triangular. Fl. Jun-Oct, fr. Sep-Oct.
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