Plants climbing, herbaceous, pale yellow pubescent-hirsute. Roots tuberous. Stems robust, angular-sulcate. Petiole robust, 2-6 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate-cordate, 5-8 × 4-9 cm, both surfaces scabrous, hirsute on veins, basal lateral veins along margin of blade base, base cordate, margin irregularly dentate, apex acute or shortly acuminate; sinus deep, suborbicular or semicircular, 1-1.5 cm deep, 1.5-3 cm wide. Tendrils filiform, simple. Male flowers solitary or several congested on short rachis into pseudoraceme; pedicel filiform, 1.5-3.5 cm, pubescent; calyx tube very short, subrotate, 3-4 × 7-8 mm; segments reflexed, lanceolate, 12-13 × 2-3 mm; stamens 4 connected in pairs and 1 free, 2-2.5 mm, puberulent; anthers ovoid, ca. 2 mm; rudimentary ovary semiglobose. Female flowers solitary; pedicels slender, 1-2 cm, pubescent; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes 5; ovary oblong, 5-8 mm, densely pale yellow pubescent; style 3-fid; stigma enlarged, reniform, 2-lobed. Fruit orange-yellow, ovoid-oblong, 4-5 cm × ca. 28 mm, pubescent, with 10 longitudinal striae, base slightly attenuate. Seeds black, ovate, 4-4.3 × 2.5-3 mm, ca. 1.5 mm thick, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

The fruit and roots are used medicinally.

Forest margins, valleys; 300-1800 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, N Sichuan [Korea; introduced in Japan].