Shrub up to c. 2.5 m tall, vegetative parts finely and shortly tomentose, without long simple hairs. Leaves with 5–55 mm long petiole; blade ± broadly ovate, entire or occasionally very shallowly 3-lobed, up to 70 x 50 mm, cordate at the base, acute to subacute at the apex, with coarsely dentate margins. Flowers solitary in leaf axils; pedicels 7–55 mm long. Epicalyx bracts 5(–6), 7–17 x 3–8 mm, ovate to broadly elliptic, acute to acuminate at the apex, sometimes ciliate with long simple hairs along margins (not in Somalia), united for up to half their length. Calyx 7–11 mm long, lobes ovate, acute, not ciliate. Petals cream to lemon yellow or orange yellow, sometimes with purple base, 10–35 mm long. Staminal column 6–10 mm long. Mericarps 4–6 mm long, puberulous, with a prominent dorsal keel with a single row of spines, lateral ridges c. 3, some or all with a spine in upper part.
This includes “ P. sp. = Friis et al. 2801” in Fl. Eth. 2(2): 226 (1995). The Somali plants generally have smaller flowers than the Ethiopian ones, and the epicalyx bracts are not ciliate.
