The World Flora Online

Annual herb, shoots 2–7 m long, stem 3–5 mm diam., sparsely or densely grey or rusty hairy, hairs 2–5 mm long. Probract narrow-or broad-elliptic, (0.5–)1–2 cm long, acute or blunt. Tendrils 2- or 3-branched. Leaves: blade 5–7-angular or shallowly (sometimes deeply) lobed, 7–20 cm diam., cystoliths not apparent, base cordate, margin coarsely dentate, apex (of lobes) acute-acuminate; petiole 4–12(–20) cm long. Male flowers: pedicel 4–15 cm long, hairy; receptacle-tube broadly cup-shaped, 4–6 by 10–15 mm; sepals narrowly elliptic or linear, 10–20 mm long, acute, entire, or (deeply) 2–3-lobed or serrate; petals obovate to narrowly elliptic, 25–40(–70) mm long, subacute or obtuse, with minute mucro, hairy on veins outside, very densely pilose at point of insertion of stamens at ca ⅓ from the base in the receptacle-tube, the hairs screening off a small basal glabrous chamber without or with an inconspicuous disc at the bottom; filaments glabrous, erect, broad, 2–3 mm long; anthers somewhat connivent, 4–5 by 5–7(–10) mm, little exserted, thecae plicate along a broad, flat 3-lobed connective. Female flowers: perianth similar to male but smaller; pedicel 2–4 cm long; ovary densely hairy, (narrowly) ovoid or (narrowly) ellipsoid (cylindrical), 15–20(–40) by 5–10(–15) mm, style stout, 2–3 mm long, stigma stout, 5–10 mm diam., undulating because of 3 horseshoe-shaped lobes; disc a low ± undulating ring; staminodes inserted close to the disc, mostly inconspicuous, 1–2 mm long, flat. Fruit solitary, globose, ellipsoid or narrowly ellipsoid, 4–120 cm long, glabrescent; pericarp thin, leathery, when old woody, 1–1.5 mm thick; mesocarp ± absent or thick and fleshy; fruiting pedicel 3–5 cm long, usually curved, leaving a concave scar after breaking off. Seeds ovate elliptic, 7–10 by 4–7 mm, faces not ornamented, margin narrow, finely 2-grooved.

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Widely cultivated in SE Asia (and elsewhere), the wild form (Fig. 3.) mainly in C and E Malesia, Australia and in the Pacific.

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Young and ripe fruits and young shoots are used as vegetables.

Source: [
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