Trichosanthes schlechteri Cogn. ex Harms

Climber, 4-7 m long, glabrous, leafy stem 2-4 mm diam.; dioecious. Probract (narrowly) obovate, 4-7 by 2-4 mm, dentate or entire, glands present. Tendrils (unbranched) or 2-branched. Leaves: petiole (1-)2-3(-5) cm long; blade green on drying, chartaceous or coriaceous, simple, unlobed, in outline (narrowly) ovate or hastate, (6-)9-20 by 9(-11) cm, scabrous above, glands absent or few at the leaf base, 0.5 mm diam., cystoliths obvious or not, base broadly rounded, or truncate or hastate, margin spiny dentate, especially towards the base; veins 3(-5), basal, and few from the midrib, curved, veins raised beneath. Male raceme with a solitary flower co-axillary, glabrous (corolla bud minutely hairy); peduncle 1.5-4 cm long, 1-2 mm thick, together with the long pedicel of the solitary flower withering into straw-like appendages, 2-4 mm thick; rachis somewhat zigzag, not thickened, 3-4 cm long, 1 mm thick, 5-8-flowered; bracts obovate-rhomboid or narrowly elliptic, 8-13 by 5-8 mm, margin sharply toothed or irregularly few-lobed, glands present. Male flowers: pedicel 3-10 mm long, caducous; receptacle-tube c. 50 mm long, at throat 7(-10) mm wide; sepals narrowly triangular or narrowly elliptic, 3-10 mm long, 1-3 mm wide at base, entire; petals obovate, 15-20 mm long, threads short, c. 5 mm long; synandrium c. 8 mm long, filaments not seen. Female flowers not known. Fruit green, paler striped, ripening orange-red, ovoid or ellipsoid, 6.5-20 by 4.5-7.5 cm; exocarp leathery or woody, smooth; pericarp firm-carnose, dry pericarp 10-13 mm thick; pulp red; fruiting pedicel c. 2 cm long, 3-5 mm thick. Seeds blackish, compressed, (narrowly) elliptic, 16-18 by 8-10 by 3-4 mm, base and apex subtruncate, sometimes ± notched or undulate, margin broad, c. 3 mm wide, edge entire.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in the rainforest and up to 1,300 m above sea level.

UsesFruits edible.