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Leaves 10–18 x 7–13 cm., ovate to obovate; apex short acuminate; base rounded to subcordate; margin finely serrate or crenulate, with more than 35 crenulations on each side; lamina dark green, drying brownish black, upper surface glabrous, occasionally with a few stiff hairs, cystoliths dot-like to elongated, lower surface glabrescent to puberulous especially on the nerves, rarely entirely pubescent, or with a few stinging hairs on the nerves; triplinerved with 3–4(5) pairs of lateral nerves, the basal pair extending into upper third of lamina, tertiary nerves and nerves of higher order clearly marked, scalariform.
A woody creeper. It climbs over trees. It can climb 30 m high. The stems can be 30 cm across. The bark is rough and soft. There are roots along the stem. It has stinging hairs. It has lots of clear sap. The leaves are 10-18 cm long by 7-13 cm wide. They are oval. The base is round and there is a short tip. There are fine teeth along the edge. The flowering stalks are 4-18 cm long. They have stinging hairs. The fruit is small, dry and one seeded. It is 1 mm long.
Female inflorescences sessile or on peduncles up to c. 2 cm. long; flowers sessile to subsessile, surrounded by stinging hairs, densely clustered, on pedicels c. 1 mm. long, perianth segments 4, basally fused, very unequal, 2 outer short, 2 inner subcircular and almost as long as the ovary, stigma penicillate, protruding.
Stems with numerous adventitious roots; bark of young stems reddish-brown, pubescent to glabrescent without protuberances and stinging hairs but with numerous large leaf scars; older stems with glabrous, smooth or striate, reddish-brown bark, usually not peeling; sap copious, clear.
Male inflorescences sessile or on peduncles up to c. 1 cm. long, usually larger than the female; flowers on c. 2 mm. long pedicels, 4-merous, perianth c. 1.5 mm. in diam.
Achene 1–1.5 mm. long, compressed, slightly oblique, brown, minutely granulate, enclosed by the 2 orange-red, fleshy, accrescent perianth lobes.
Stipules dark brown, triangular to lanceolate, fused for at least two thirds of their length, up to c. 3 mm. long, puberulous, often ciliate.
Inflorescences elongated, lax cymes 4–18 cm. long, usually with numerous stinging hairs.
Petioles 4–10 cm. long, mostly with a few stinging hairs.
A woody liana, climbing to 25 m. or more high.