Plant: Perennial tendril-climbing vine; 0.5-3 m long, densely pilose throughout

Leaves: palmately 3(-5) lobed, the margins usually erose serrate or incised serrate, ciliate with gland tipped cilia; petiole with gland tipped cilia; stipules cleft to near base into numerous conspicuous gland tipped cilia or segments

INFLORESCENCE: with peduncles paired or solitary, arising colateral to the tendril; peduncles articulate distal to the bracts; bracts in ours setaceous to foliaceous or pinnatifid; bracts 18-27 mm long, 7-15 mm wide (to 45 mm long, 27 mm wide in fruit), lightly pilose, deeply bipinnatifid, the segments, cilia, or teeth glandular tipped

Flowers: ca 4-5.5 cm in diameter, whitish, the corona white or purplish; sepals subequal to or slightly shorter than petals; coronal filaments in ca. 6 series, the outermost 10-17 mm long, the inner ca. 4 series 2 mm or less long; ovary long pilose

Fruit: FRUITS berries, ca. 2.5-3 cm in diameter, globose or widely ellipsoid, greenish or yellowish; SEEDS ca. 5.6-6.3 mm long, 3.3-3.9 mm wide, pitted, apically tridentate

Misc: Outcrops in desert grasslands; 1150-1700 m (3700-5600 ft); Jun-Oct (fr. Aug-Oct)