Lianas, stems with 4(-5) phloem arms in cross section; branchlets sharply hexagonal with conspicuous ribs, without interpetiolar glandular fields; pseudo-stipules foliaceous, often early deciduous. Leaves 2-3-foliolate, the terminal leaf-let often replaced by a trifid tendril. Inflorescence a terminal racemose panicle usually on a short lateral branch. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, double, with a thick inner tube and a spreading, frilly outer limb; corolla purple at ma-turity, thick, tubular, bilabiate, split about half its length and the upper 2 lobes and lower 3 lobes fused, glabrous or somewhat pubescent outside; anthers gla-brous, the thecae thick, divaricate; pollen grains single, 6-8-colpate, the exine alveolate; ovary ovate-cylindric, the ovules multiseriate in each locule. Fruit an oblong-elliptic capsule, the valves parallel to the septum, somewhat compressed, woody, smooth to tuberculate; seeds thin, puberulous winged, the wings mem-branaceous, brownish to hyaline at tip and not sharply demarcated from the seed body.
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