Herbs annual, copiously armed, pubescent with glandular, many-celled, simple and stellate hairs. Stems erect, with yellow or orange-yellow, subulate prickles 2-10 × 1.5 mm. Leaves simple or sometimes pinnate; petiole 1.5-4 cm; leaf blade oblong or ovate, 4.5-10(-14) × 2.5-5(-8) cm, stellate pubescent, sometimes shaggy, often armed along main veins on both surfaces, pinnately lobed or parted; lobes pinnately lobed or dentate, apex acute. Inflorescences axillary or extra-axillary scorpioid racemes; peduncle branched or not. Pedicel 5-10 mm. Calyx cup-shaped, ca. 1 cm; lobes ovate-lanceolate, ca. 5 × 2 mm, pubescent and prickly as on stems. Corolla purplish or white, stellate, 1.6-3.5 cm; lobes ovate, 10 × 4-8 mm, sparsely hairy. Filaments ca. 1 mm, glabrous; anthers lanceolate, ca. 9 mm. Ovary puberulent. Style 1-1.2 cm. Fruiting pedicel 1-1.5 cm, stout. Fruiting calyx enlarged, longer than fruit, densely prickly and enveloping most berry, ultimately flaring wide and exposing it. Berry bright red, subglobose, 1-2 cm in diam. Seeds reniform, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm. Fl. and fr. warm months of the year.

Cultivated in Guangdong and Yunnan (Kunming), naturalized in Kunming [native to South America and naturalized in Africa, Australia].