This plant can grow 3 to 6 feet tall and produce a network of underground roots. The stems and leaves are hairy and the leaf margins are divided into broad lobes. The leaves may be up to 8 inches long and up to 6 inches wide. Flowers and fruit are produced throughout the growing season. Immature fruit resemble tiny watermelons with green and white mottled coloration.
Mature fruit are yellow with a leathery skin surrounding a thin layer of pale green pulp.
Each fruit may contain 200 to 400 flattened reddish-brown seeds covered by a sticky mucilage. A single plant may produce more than 200 fruit. In Florida, tropical soda apple is a noxious weed in improved pastures, rangeland, ditch banks, and fallowed areas. Within 2 years, tropical soda apple can reduce the productivity of a pasture. In severe infestations, productivity of pastures may be reduced by more than 90 percent.