Herbaceous biennial or annual, acaulescent, with red-purple succulent root. Ovate to ovate-oblong leaves, long petiolate, green, red or purple, forming a rosette on the ground. Scape of up to 2 m with numerous flowers grouped in a large and diffuse panicle. Fruits joined in groups of two or more.

Tree of up to 13 m in height. Single, alternate, membranaceous, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute to acuminate leaves, 10 to 20 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide. Short, lateral, internodal inflorescences, with few yellowish green flowers; pedicels 1.6-2.4 cm long, outer petals 1.5-2.5 cm. Syncarpous, subglobose fruit, reddish when ripe, up to 12 cm in diameter, yellowish, sweet or tasteless and aromatic flesh; numerous, black, shiny seeds.

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.

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.