An annual herbaceous vine growing up to 4 m in length. The stems are pentagonal with longitudinal grooves and simple tendrils.
The leaves have a flattened kidney-shaped or rounded shape, deeply incised into 5-9 lobes, heart-shaped at the base. Arranged sequentially. The flowers are unisexual, located one at a time in the leaf axils. The petals are yellow, in number five.
The stalks are long. The fruits are initially green in color, in the ripe phase they become bright yellow or orange, the surface is rough, with wrinkles and warts. The shape of the fruit is varied; they can be cylindrical, spindle-shaped, or oval. Dimensions 3—15(40) × 2—5(8) cm.
The pulp of unripe fruits is pale green, dense, juicy, and very bitter.
The seeds are unevenly shaped (from flat ovoid to almost rectangular), bitter, 8-15 × 4-10 mm in size. They are located in the whitish spongy-dry pulp. The color of mature seeds is red-brown.