Distribution     
Native to Asia and Africa, widely cultivated and now spread from the Atlantic coast of Africa throughout the Pacific and more recently to the Neotropics. In the Marquesas a Polynesian introduction, now naturalized. In the Hawaiian Islands, a Polynesian introduction on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Maui, Hawai`i.

Habit
Stems twining to the left, slightly angled, up to 30 m long, glabrous, never with prickles, tubers nearly always solitary, 5-8 cm in diameter.

Leaves
Leaves simple, alternate, blades broadly ovate cordate, 4-20 cm long, usually 3-18 cm wide, 7-11 nerved, glabrous, petioles 6-16 cm long, axils usually with bulbils.  

Flowers
Staminate flowers widely spaced, in slender, simple or fasciculate spikes or elongate panicles, each flower subtended by 2 unequal, ovate bracts, tepals white, lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm long, stamens 6, all fertile, ovary rudimentary. Pistillate flowers in pendent, rather stiff, simple spikes, these 3-6 in fascicles, tepals white, yellow with age, staminodes 6, stigmas irregularly 2-lobed.  

Fruit
Capsules ca. 25 mm long, with wings ca. 8 mm wide.  

Seeds
Seeds winged on basal side only.  

Chromosomes
2n = 36, 40, 54, 60, 70, 80, 98 100.  

Notes
Naturalized and propagating vegetatively by means of stem tubers that fall to the ground and grow readily.