Balsam apple is a trailing or climbing, monoecious, annual or short-lived perennial tendril-bearing herb that normally grows up to 5 meters long. The plant is found growing in coastal bush land on sand, in woodland, wooded grassland and riverine fringes, on river banks, in dry river beds, disturbed areas, hammocks, roadsides, fencerows, grassland, savannah and forest margins. The plant is found growing in white, yellow, red and grey sandy soils, also in loam, clay, alluvial, gravelly and calcareous soils. It requires a soil rich in organic matter if optimum yields are to be achieve. The plant has soft stems and tendrils that climb up shrubs, boundary fields and fences. Stems are prostrate or scandent, to 2·7 m, finely, rather sparsely crispate-pubescent, especially at nodes. It is velvet-hairy to becoming hairless.