Stems grooved, sparsely puberulent. Petiole 2.5-4 cm, striate, sparsely puberulent; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green, broadly ovate to suborbicular, (6-)8-12(-20) × (5-)7-11(-16) cm, papery, deeply 3-7-lobed, usually deeply 5-lobed nearly to base; lobes linear-lanceolate, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, abaxially glabrous, adaxially shortly hairy, margin denticulate, apex acuminate. Male raceme solitary or with one 1-flowered peduncle in axillary pairs; peduncle 8-10 cm; pedicels up to ca. 7 cm; bracts rhombic-obovate, 6-14 × 5-11 mm, puberulent, attenuate at base, margin irregularly sinuate-dentate; calyx tube narrowly cylindric, dilated at apex, 2.5-3(-3.5) cm. Female flowers solitary; pedicel 5-8 cm, puberulent; calyx tube cylindric, 20-25 × 5-8 mm; ovary oblong, 10-20 × 5-10 mm, puberulent. Fruiting peduncle 4.5-8 cm; fruit orange-yellow, globose or oblong, 8-16 × 7-10 cm, smooth, glabrous. Seeds brown, ovate-oblong, compressed, 1.5-2.2 × 0.8-1.4 cm, marginate. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

The roots and fruit are used medicinally as "tian hua fen" and "gua lou."

● Dense forests along valleys, thickets or grasslands on mountain slopes; 400-1900 m. S Anhui, N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, NE Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.