Large, glabrous, twining perennial. Stems becoming woody and up to 15 m long, younger ones slender, herbaceous but firm, terete, usual­ly distinctly muriculate with reddish papillae (as are petioles, peduncles and pedicels). Leaves pentagonal in outline, 40-150 mm long and wide, palmately dissected nearly to base; base cordate with a narrow sinus; lobes 5-7, oblong to lanceolate in outline, obtuse to subacute, entire to irregularly and jaggedly pinnatilobed or pinnatifid; petiole 20-60 mm long. Inflores­cence cymose, 1- to few-flowered. Peduncles patent to suberect, 30-90 mm long; bracteoles ovate, acute, concave, 3-5 mm long, early deciduous, occasionally larger and dissected like leaves; pedicels up to 30 mm long, at first deflexed, patent to suberect when flowers open and ultimately cernuous in fruit. Sepals ovate-oblong or elliptic, coriaceous with thinner sub-membranous edges, glabrous, concave, some­what unequal, obtuse or rounded and minutely mucronate, up to 30 mm long (inner ones longer than outer ones) and ± 12 mm wide. Corolla funnel-shaped, white to dull pale yellow or buff with dark purple centre, glabrous, 40-60 mm long, 60-80 mm wide; limb faintly 5-angled, plicate: midpetaline areas not sharply defined. Capsule narrowly ellipsoid, 12-15 mm wide, pale brown, dehiscing by 4 valves and circum-scissile at base, at first enclosed in accrescent, brown calyx, but ultimately exposed just before dehiscence when sepals spread out. Seeds brown to black, minutely hairy, 8-9 mm long, ± 6 mm broad. Flowering time July to April, mostly in February and March.