Herbaceous annual, creeping or ascending, with slightly angular stems. Simple or ramified tendrils. Pubescent, serrate leaves with 5 to 7 acute or obtuse lobes. Unisexual flowers, axillary,
solitary; orange-yellow corolla of up to 15 cm. Globose fruit, sometimes cylindrical, pyriform or conical, green, yellow or orange, often grooved.

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, armed with thick, rigid and sharp thorns. Leaves 5 to 7.5 cm long, elliptic-oval, crenate; winged petioles. White flowers, 2 cm long. Round fruits from 3 to 6 cm, greenish yellowish, with abundant acid pulp. Small white seeds, oval.

Herbaceous climber with a 5 to 6 m long ribbed stem. Leaves biternate, folioles ovate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, serrated or lobed. Umbelliform inflorescence with long peduncles and white flowers of 4 to 5 mm. Subglobose capsule from 3 to 4 cm; black seeds from 4 to 5 mm.

Tree of up to 10 metres. Elliptic-lanceolate to oblong leaves of 6-12 cm, acute to short-acuminate, dotted. Flowers in small or solitary clusters, pale yellow, outer petals linear-oblong up to 2.5 cm, pubescent on the outside, the inner petals small ovate or obovate. Subglobose or ovoid fruit of 5-9 cm, prominent carpels, rounded on the back, white-yellowish, sweet flesh. Seeds 1-1.5 cm oblong, black.

Climbing plant with thin stems of up to 15 m long; tuberous roots. Alternate leaves, ovate to elliptic, 2 to 8 cm long and 2 to 4 cm wide, acute to acuminate, gradual or abruptly narrow at the base. Minute white aromatic flowers in lax clusters of 6 to 20 cm, slender; white calyx and corolla, ovate petals of 2 to 2.5 mm. Tricarpellar nut-type fruit with a single seed protected by the perianth.

Herbaceous annual up to 60 cm high, covered with numerous thorns; yellow latex. Sessile, alternate, sinuate-pinnatifid leaves 8-20 cm long, short and wide lobes, thorny margins. Solitary terminal hermaphrodite flowers; calyx of 3 spiny sepals; corolla with 6 petals, yellow or white, 2-3 cm. Capsule with 4-6 shells of 4-5 cm, spiny.