Stout herbaceous glabrous plant, climbing by tendrils. Stems terete, greyish, grooved; internodes up to 8 cm. long. Leaf-lamina 8–17 × 6–13 cm., broadly ovate, abruptly acuminate at apex, entire-margined, deeply cordate at the base, penninerved, membranous, dark green above, paler beneath; petiole 4–10 cm. long, bearing 4–6 scattered, liguliform or filiform glands, 3–10 mm. long; stipules 1–2·5 × 0·8–1·2 cm., ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, entire or serrulate, narrowed at the base. Tendrils stout and long. Peduncle 2–4 cm. long, solitary or geminate. Bracts 2–3·5 × 1–1·5 cm., connate along 1/5–1/3 of their length, the free parts ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, entire, glabrous but tomentose near the margin. Flowers 6–9 cm. in diameter. Calyx-tube short, campanulate. Sepals 2·5–3·5 × 1–1·5 cm., acute, green outside, white inside. Petals c. 3 × 0·8–1 cm., oblong, white or pinkish-white. Corona in 5–7 rows, the filaments of the 2 outer ones as long as the petals, radiate, blue at apex, banded with white and reddish-purple below, the inner rows approximate, the filaments c. 2 mm. long. Operculum membranous, slightly incurved, denticulate, white and reddish-purple at margin. Limen cupuliform, surrounding the base of the gynophore. Ovary ovoid. Fruit 6–8 × 4–5 cm., ovoid, yellowish or purplish. Seeds c. 6 × 4 mm., narrowly obcordate, minutely tridentate at the apex, with the faces irregularly reticulate.
