Copiously armed erect or sprawling herbs to 0.6 (-1) m tall; pubescence of coarse, many-celled simple hairs; prickles pale yellow, needlelike; stems conspicuously white lenticellate, glabrate to pilose, prickly. Leaves paired broadly ovate, 5-13 cm long, 4-12 cm wide, apically acute or acuminate, basally cordate, 5-7-lobed to halfway, with many-celled simple hairs above, glabrous or hairy only along veins beneath, prickly along veins on both sides; petiole stout, 2-7 cm long. Inflorescences extra-axillary, racemose, 1-4-flowered; peduncle unbranched, often obsolete; pedicel 5-12 mm. Flowers with calyx 8 mm long, lobed 2/3 way, the lobes ovate, pubescent as on stems; corolla white, greenish at base, lobes lanceolate, 4 mm long; filaments 2.5 mm long, anthers lanceolate, 6 mm long; ovary minutely stipitate glandular. Berry orange-red, subglobose, 3.5-6 cm across, mesocarp white, spongy; fruiting pedicel 2-2.5 cm long; fruiting calyx copiously armed, somewhat enlarged, not covering the fruit; seeds yellowish, discoid, with a conspicuous, thin circular wing, 4-6 mm across.

TAIPEI: Yangmingshan, Kao 5461. TAOYUEN: Yangmei, Bufford et al. 19205; Fuhsing, Leu 1740. HSINCHU: Wufeng, Wang W00740; Hsinchuangtzu, Peng 6382. MIAOLI: Shihtan, Leu 924. NANTOU: Luku, Fenghuangku, Wang 157. CHIAYI: Fanlu, Peng 10045; Kuanyinshan, Huang 2361. PINGTUNG: Nanjenshan, Ho 1353. HUALIEN: Taroko Natl. Park, Tali to Shemiku, Chen 324.

Native to Brazil; now a widespread weed of warm regions. Taiwan, in wastelands, near roadsides, open forests, and thickets at 200-1500 m elevation.