Perennial scrambler or climber. Stems annual, prostrate or scandent, growing from a tuberous rootstock. Tendrils simple.
Leaves shallowly 5-lobed with short triangular lobes, giving the leaf a near-pentagonal outline. Base deeply cordate.
Flowers solitary, axillary, unisexual on the same plant. Peduncles adnate to the leaf petioles, each flower appearing to arise from a leaf. Corolla bright orange; lobes obovate-obcuneate, bilobed.
Male flowers 3.5-6 cm in diameter, much larger than female flowers. Fruit small, fusiform, ribbed, pubescent particularly on the ribs.