Juvenile plants creeping over forest floor, rooting at intervals; branchlets slender, pubescent, us. with ∞ slender prickles; lvs ternate to quinate; lflts thin, glabrate, ovate to ovate-oblong, acute to obtuse, acutely serrate; lamina c. 1-3 × 1-2 cm., with petiolule up to 5 cm. long, finer veins distinct. Adult plants dioec. lianes with stout main stems, up to 10 m. or more long; lvs ternate to quinate; lflts elliptic to ovate or suborbicular, coriac., glab. except on main veins, acute to obtuse, rounded to oblique at base; lamina 3-5 × 1-3·5 cm., with petiole 2-5 cm. long, finer venation distinct to indistinct. Fls distant on pedicels c. 1 cm. long, in panicles or occ. racemes up to 2 dm. long. Sepals 2-4 mm. long, ovate, obtuse, pubescent; petals 5, white, broad-ovate, c. 3-6 mm. long; frs c. 9 mm. diam., of ∞ drupelets, flesh yellowish, achenes c. 3-4 mm. long.

2n = 28

Scrambling liane; stems stout, terete, finely tomentose when young, sometimes becoming glabrous, often only sparsely hairy in juveniles; armature of numerous, small, slender, wide-based, reddish prickles. Lvs palmate; leaflets 3-5, mostly glabrous but often with weak hairs on major veins on both surfaces and margins, usually coarsely and often unevenly serrate, thin and submembranous and with veins darkened and conspicuous in juveniles; terminal leaflet lamina elliptic to ovate or suborbicular, 15-60 × 10-40 mm, with petiolule usually c. = or > lamina, rarely shorter. Infl. a many-flowered panicle up to 20 cm long. Petals white to cream, occasionally pinkish. Drupelets pale yellow to orange-red.