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Plants herbaceous or woody vines, perennial, tendrillate, glabrous. Roots tuberous or fleshy. Stems terete; tendrils axillary, (minutely 3-forked or) simple. Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate; stipules triangular, minute; petiole apex or blade base with 2 glands. Plants (monoecious or) dioecious. Inflorescences axillary, cymose-corymbose, pedunculate, few-to many flowered, tendrillate at center; bracts and bracteoles triangular, minute. Flowers yellowish or green, often red punctate, unisexual, with solid tissue (stipe) subtending hypanthium articulate at pedicel. Hypanthium narrowly to broadly cup-shaped. Sepals (calyx lobes) 5, partially connate into calyx tube, imbricate, persistent. Petals 5, free, attached at hypanthium apex, greenish, creamy, or white, mostly smaller than sepals, included. Septa, when present, adnate with hypanthium and filaments or staminodes, dividing hypanthium into 5 sacs. Corona absent or a laciniate to membranous ring at apex of hypanthium. Disk glands 5 or absent, ligulate, truncate, inserted at or near base of hypanthium, alternating with petals. Male flower: stamens 5, hypogynous or perigynous, variably inserted in hypanthium; filaments free or partially connate into tube, often fused abaxially to septa; vestigial ovary present. Female flower with stamens reduced to subulate staminodes; ovary superior on gynophore, globose, with 3 parietal placentas; remnant stamen tube, if present, not adnate with gynophore; ovules numerous, anatropous; styles 3, free or partially fused; stigmas laciniate or plumose to densely woolly. Fruit a 3-valved capsule, bright red. Seeds with pitted testa, black at maturity, enclosed in fleshy aril.
Unarmed climbers (in Mal.), often with tubers. Leaves (in Mal.) simple, entire or lobed, pinni-or palminerved; apex of petiole or blade-base with 1-2 glands, sessile or on auricles. Stipules (in Mal.) minute. Inflorescences mostly stalked, few-to many-flowered, often with l(-3) tendrils, rarely collected into raceme-like short-shoots. Bracts small. Flowers unisexual (plants mostly dioecious), in ♂ with vestigial ovary, in ♀ the stamens reduced to ± subulate staminodes (rarely bisexual in Afr.), mostly greenish to yellowish; hypanthium saucer-to cup-shaped, or tubi-form, sometimes 5-saccate. Sepals (4-)5(-6), free or partially connate into a calyx tube. Petals (4-)5(-6), free or partially connate with the calyx tube, greenish, creamy, or white, mostly smaller than the sepals. Corona mostly a simple laciniate membrane or composed of hairs, sometimes fleshy, situated at the transition of hypanthium and sepals (or calyx tube), or absent. Disk mostly composed of 5 strap-shaped or clavate often outward curved appendages, opposite the sepals, inserted near mostly the bottom of the hypanthium. Androgynophore 0, rarely short. Stamens 5, (in Mal.) inserted at the base of the hypanthium, free or partially connate into a filamental tube, the tube often connected with the hypanthium by septa opposite the petals; anthers narrow, mostly acute or acuminate, erect, basi-fixed. Ovary subsessile, globose to fusiform; styles 3(-5), free or connate, distinct or not; stigmas finely lobed to papillate or ramified. Capsule 3-valved, (in Mal.) coriaceous or woody.
Perennial, dioecious, monoecious or polygamous vines, glabrous or rarely with hairs (not in Australia), sometimes tuberous (not in Australia). Stems terete, sometimes swollen and succulent (not in Australia). Stipules minute, triangular. Leaves simple or 3–5-lobed, rarely deeply incised and appearing truly compound (not in Australia), usually with 2 to many glands on the lamina; petiole with 1 or 2 glands near lamina. Inflorescences axillary, cymose, often with terminal or first 3 flowers replaced by a tendril; bracts minute. Flowers actinomorphic, with a cup-like or tubular hypanthium, usually unisexual, rarely bisexual (not in Australia); male flowers with vestigial ovary; female flowers with stamens reduced to subulate staminodes. Sepals (4) 5 (6), free (not in Australia) or partially connate. Petals (4) 5 (6), free (not in Australia) or partially connate, greenish, creamy or white. Corona a laciniate membrane or composed of hairs, sometimes fleshy, at the transition between hypanthium and sepals (not in Australia) or absent. Stamens (4) 5 (6), free and inserted at the base of hypanthium distant from gynophore and ovary (not in Australia) or partially connate into a filament tube; filament tube connected to hypanthium by septa opposite petals. Ovary elevated on gynophore or not (not in Australia). Styles 3 (–5), free (not in Australia) or partially connate, sometimes nearly lacking (not in Australia). Fruit a 3 (–5)-valved capsule, subglobose (not in Australia), ovoid or ellipsoid. Seeds many, pitted, surrounded by greyish aril.
Female flowers: usually smaller than the male ones; staminodes ± subulate; ovary superior, subsessile or shortly stipitate, globular to oblong, 1-locular, with 3(5) parietal placentas, usually with numerous anatropous 2-tegumented ovules; styles 3(5), free or partially connate; stigmas usually reniform to subglobular, laciniate or plumose or densely woolly-papillate.
Male flowers: stamens (4)5(6), hypogynous or perigynous, with the filaments free or partially connate into a tube and the anthers basifixed, oblong to linear, acute or obtuse, often apiculate or mucronate, 2-locular, with 2 longitudinal slits; vestigial ovary minute.
Herbaceous to ligneous perennial climbers with tendrils, sometimes erect herbs or shrubs or small trees usually without tendrils, arising from a rootstock or tuber or provided with a thick main stem.
Flowers dioecious or rarely monoecious, hermaphrodite or polygamous, campanulate or urceolate to tubular or infundibuliform, usually greenish or yellowish, with a stipe articulate at the base.
Seeds ± compressed, with crustaceous pitted testa, enclosed in a membranous to pulpy aril; endosperm horny; embryo large, straight, with foliaceous cotyledons.
Disk-glands 5, ± strap-shaped, truncate or capitate, inserted at or near the base of the hypanthium, alternating with the petals, or sometimes absent.
Glands (0)1–2 at the base of the lamina, at or near the top of the petiole, sometimes with others on the lower surface or at the margin of the lamina.
Leaves sessile or ± long-petiolate, simple and entire, variously lobed to palmately partite or rarely palmately compound, glabrous or pubescent.
Inflorescences axillary, cymose, the median or the first three flower(s) often replaced by tendril(s) (inflorescence tendrils).
Corona annular or consisting of 5 cup-shaped parts or of a laciniate rim or membrane or a row of filaments or hairs, or 0.
Capsule stipitate, 3(5)-valved, the pericarp coriaceous to somewhat fleshy, greenish, yellowish or bright red.
Petals (4)5(6), free or ± adnate to the calyx-tube included in the calyx, usually fimbriate or laciniate.
Sepals (4)5(6), free or ± long-connate, imbricate, persistent.
Bracts and bracteoles minute, triangular to subulate.
Stipules minute, narrowly triangular or reniform.
Hypanthium saucer-or cup-shaped or tubular.
Tendrils axillary (sterile tendrils).
