Strong climber or trailer to 9 m. Leaf-blade very broadly ovate-reniform, cordate, dark green and scabrid above, paler and sparsely to densely very shortly puberulous beneath, 6–19 x 4–21 cm, palmately 5-lobed, lobes triangular, ovate or elliptic, sometimes lobulate; petiole 1.3–12 cm long, with 2 horn-like yellow-green glands at the apex. Dioecious. Male flowers usually 2–10 in pedunculate racemes, rarely solitary or paired with pedicels up to 5 cm long. Hypanthium broadly obconical, 7–12 mm long. Sepals triangular to subulate, 3–6 mm long. Petals white or whitish with green veins, clawed with rounded limb, 2.4–5.3 cm long. Female flowers solitary. Pedicel 1.5–8 cm long. Ovary ellipsoid, with short greyish hairs, 1.5–2.2 cm long. Hypanthium 1–1.5 mm long. Sepals linear, 4–10 mm long. Petals broadly obovate, 2.2–6 cm long. Fruit subglobose, up to 10 cm in diam., green with transverse streaks, dots and patches. Seeds oblong-triangular in outline, compressed, pointed at one end, subtruncate and obscurely 2-horned on the shoulders at the other, c. 10 x 6 x 2.5 mm, with 2 flat longitudinal facial ridges.
