Tree, 5-10 m high, trunk brittle, root with taste and odour of horseraddish. Leaves deciduous, alternate, 30-60cm long, compound 3-pinnate, leaflets opposite, numerous, short-petiolate, 1-2.5 cm x 0.6-1.5 cm, variable in shape; inflorescence a panicle, axillary, flowers fragrant numerous, petals white,14-18 mm x 6-8 mm; fruit a linear capsule, triquetrous, 20- 45 cm long, 2 cm thick, usually pendulous tan; seeds globular 10 mm in diameter usually winged.

Tree or shrub, up to 6 m high.  Leaves opposite, elliptic, petioles 1-2 cm long, winged, blades glabrous, broadly ovate or elliptic, 17-45 cm x 8-24 cm, base obtuse, apex acuminate; stipules rounded 1-2 cm long and broad; flowers sessile on globose heads, corolla tube white, 6-10 mm long; fruits fused into a ‘pineapple-like’ globose structure 5-7 cm long and 3-7 cm in diameter, becoming white then semi-tranlucent with fetid smell when ripe.

Climbing dioecious herb 6 m or more, usually densely branchedwith tendrils.  Leaves alternate, simple 4-12 cm long, deeply5-7 lobed,sinuate with mucronate tips; inflorescence a raceme; female and male flowers yellow, peduncle shorter on female flower, bracts on male peduncle reniform to rounded-cordate; fruit cylindrical, narrowed at both ends, 8-15 cm long, prominent tubercles on the ribs, orange when ripe containing pendulous seeds covered in a red pulp; seed oblong 12-16 mm x 5-9 mm and 3-4 mm thick.