Edible fruit. Honey nectar plants.

Annual herb. Stems prostrate or scandent to 10 m., ± villous, glabrescent. Tendrils 2–3-fid. Leaf-lamina 5–20 × 3·5–19 cm., ovate or narrowly ovate in outline, cordate, ± hairy (especially on the veins beneath), becoming scabrid-punctate, usually deeply palmately 3–5-lobed, the lobes elliptic in outline, shallowly to usually deeply ± pinnately lobulate, subentire or obscurely sinuate-denticulate, rounded to subacute, apiculate, the central much the largest. Petioles 2–18·5 cm. long, ± hairy or villous, sometimes scabrescent. Probracts 4–18 mm. long, obovate-spathulate. male flowers on ± villous 12–45 mm. long pedicels; receptacle-tube 2.5–5 mm. long, pale green, lobes 2·5–5 mm. long, lanceolate. Petals 0·7–1·9 × 0·4–1·4 cm., obovate, rounded, apiculate. Female flowers on 3–45 mm. long pedicels; ovary 6–15 × 4–8 mm., ellipsoid or subglobose, villous; receptacle-tube 1·5–2 mm. long, lobes 2·5–5·5 mm. long; corolla as in male flowers. male flowers on ± villous 12–45 mm. long pedicels; receptacle-tube 2.5–5 mm. long, pale green, lobes 2·5–5 mm. long, lanceolate. Petals 0·7–1·9 × 0·4–1·4 cm., obovate, rounded, apiculate. Female flowers on 3–45 mm. long pedicels; ovary 6–15 × 4–8 mm., ellipsoid or subglobose, villous; receptacle-tube 1·5–2 mm. long, lobes 2·5–5·5 mm. long; corolla as in male flowers. Fruit of wild plants 1·5–20 cm. in diameter, subglobose, greenish mottled with darker green, of cultivated plants up to 60 × 30 cm., subglobose or ellipsoid, green or yellowish, concolorous or variously mottled or striped; fruit-stalk 2–5 cm. long. Seeds c. 9–11 × 5–6 × 2·5–2·7 mm., ovate-elliptic in outline, smooth or slightly verrucose, dark or pale coloured, often mottled, sometimes bordered. Flowering from July-October.

wet places, and are cultivated in the UAE on farms, gardens and homes.