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.