Biannual or annual, acaulescent herb, with succulent, purple-red root.  Leaves forming a rosette, ovate to ovate-oblong, with long petiole, green, red or purple; inflorescence spike-like, numerous flowers borne in cymes; fruits 1-seeded but two or more are usually joined together.

Annual herbaceous, trailing vine. Stem slightly woody, rounded or slightly 5-angled; tendrils coiling and branching; leaves simple, shallowly lobed, pubescent 20 x 30 cm, petiole 12-30 cm long; flowers unisexual, solitary, petals yellowish-orange, up to 15 cm long; fruits dull in colour, globose, sometimes cylindrical or pyriform, at least 15cm long, often with rounded ridges.

Solitary palm up to 30 m tall. Trunk stout, straight or leaning, prominently ringed; leaves pinnate 3-6 m long, pinnae numerous, somewhat drooping in one plane, stiff linear acuminate 50 -70 cm long; inflorescence in the axis of the leaves; male flowers, creamy-white 0.7 – 1.3 cm x 0.5 - 0.7 cm, female flowers 20-40, globose 2.5 –3 cm in diameter; fruit ovoid, slightly triangular, 30 cm long and 20 cm in diameter with a white fleshy endosperm.

Small tree with irregular branches up to 5 m tall, with thick, rigid, sharp thorns. Leaf elliptical, dark green, slightly leathery and aromatic, 4-8 cm x 2-5cm, petiole narrowly winged; inflorescence a raceme; flowers white, fragrant, 1.5 cm long; fruit sub-spherical, 5-6 cm long, yellow when ripe, with very acid pulp, seeds white, small, oval.

Climbing shrub 3 (-6 m) high.  Leaves alternate up to 12 cm long, compound, blade pellucid-dotted, leaflets 5 cm x 2.5 cm, ovate-elliptical, acute-tipped; inflorescence corymbose; flowers white, 4-petals, 4-6 mm long; fruit sub-globose, 3-angled much inflated capsule, 2.5-3 cm in length and width; seeds black, 4-5 mm long with white aril.