Tall scrambling shrub; stems to c. 4 m long, arching, obscurely angled, densely pilose, covered with prickles to c. 4 mm long. Leaves simple, broadly ovate, mostly 8–19 cm long, 7–21 cm wide, 5-lobed or obscurely 7-lobed, base deeply cordate, margin toothed, upper surface mid green, the veins deeply impressed, distinctly bullate (bullae 0.7-1 mm high) all over leaf surface or sometimes near margins in older leaves green, with scattered simple hairs, lower surface yellowish brown-tomentose; stipules deeply divided. Flowers in short leafy panicles. Sepals villous, ovate, never reflexed; petals suborbicular to broadly ovate, white or pink. Fruiting head ovoid to oblong, mature fruit purplish black. Flowers ?winter (1 record).
OtP, HSF. Also naturalised in ? WA, NSW. Native to tropical Asia, from India and Sri Lanka east to Malaysia. Grown for its edible fruit in Queensland and New South Wales, known in Victoria from a single collection in Belgrave, where growing near track in damp sclerophyll forest dominated by Eucalyptus obliqua and E. cypellocarpa.
