A perennial vine. Stems grooved, sparsely puberulous. Petiole 2.5-4 cm, striate, sparsely puberulous; leaf blade broadly ovate to suborbicular, (6-)8-12(-20) X (5-)7-11(-16) cm, characteous , deeply 3-7-lobed, usually deeply 5-lobed near to base; lobes linear-lanceolate, lanceolate or oblanceolate, adaxially deep green, shortly hairy, abaxially pale green, glabrous, margin denticulate, apex acuminate. Male raceme solitary or with one 1-flowered peduncle in axillary pairs; peduncle 8-10 cm; pedicels up to ca. 7 cm; bracts rhombic-obovate, 6-14 X 5-11mm, margin irregularly sinuate-dentate, base attenuate, puberulous; calyx tube narrowly cylindric, dilated at the apex, 2.5-3(-3.5) cm. Female flowers solitary; pedicel 5-8 cm, puberulous; calyx tube cylindric, 20-25 X 5-8 mm; ovary oblong, 10-20 X 5-10 mm, puberulous. Fruiting peduncle 4.5-8 cm; fruit globose or oblong, 8-16 X 7-10 cm, smooth, glabrous, orange-yellow. Seeds ovate-oblong, compressed, 1.5-2.2 X 0.8-1.4 cm, brown, marginate.

Antitussive and laxative

A decoction of dried ripe fruits, peel or seeds are used in treating cough with yellow and thick sputum, congestion in the chest, dry stools and constipation, fullness and stuffiness in the chest and the hypochondria with tenderness and breast carbuncles.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 632, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.