Deciduous, armed, non-aromatic shrub usually 0.5-1.5-(2.5) m high; nodes furnished with (1)-3, stiff, straight spines; branches and shoots spreading to erect, glabrous except when young. Lvs plicately folded in bud, with petioles to 5 cm long, not clasping at base; lamina ± broadly deltoid to subreniform, (1.5)-2-6 × 2-7 cm, usually smaller on flowering stems (where the lvs are on short spurs), palmately-lobed, usually hairy beneath, sometimes glabrate, flat and slightly shining above; base truncate to cordate; lobes shallow to deep, 3-5, broadly ovate, oblong-ovate or obovate, with secondary lobes, deeply toothed. Fls solitary or in clusters of 2-4, not fragrant. Hypanthium 3-4 mm diam., ± globose, pale greenish, glandular. Sepals 3-6 mm long, oblong or elliptic-oblong, green, often with red flush or red margin, ± hairy outside, reflexed at anthesis. Petals 1.5-2 mm long, suborbicular or broadly obovate, white. Filaments 2-3 mm long. Fr. 10-25 mm diam. (to 30 mm in cultivation), globose to broadly or oblong-ellipsoid, green, yellow or sometimes dark red, translucent, lacking bloom, hispid and sometimes with soft hairs, or glabrous; flesh becoming sweet.