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Fls 5-merous, perfect or unisexual; cal saucer-shaped, scarious, shallowly lobed; pet separate and spreading at anthesis; stamens erect and well developed in staminate fls, shorter and probably functionless in the pistillate; pistil surrounded at base by a cup-shaped, entire or lobulate disk, reduced and sterile in staminate fls; fr a berry with thin flesh and 2–4 seeds; shrubs or woody vines, with or without tendrils opposite the lvs, and with small greenish fls in cymose clusters. 20, N. Amer. and Asia.
Lianas, woody, hermaphroditic or polygamo-monoecious. Tendrils 2-or 3-branched. Leaves simple, 1-or 2-pinnately or palmately compound. Inflorescence a corymbose cyme, leaf-opposed or pseudoterminal, often at tips of tendrils. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx saucer-shaped. Petals 5, free. Disk well developed, margin undulately lobed. Stamens 5. Style conspicuous; stigma inconspicuously expanded. Berry spherical, 1-4-seeded. Seed obovoid, base rostrate, apex rounded; cross-section of endosperm M-shaped.
