Herbaceous to suffruticose, terrestrial or epiphytic, suberect or climbing, very variable in all its parts, 3-15 dm. high. Stems 2-12 mm. thick, glabrous to pilose, green or red. Leaves transverse or oblique or rarely some almost straight, broadly or narrowly ovate, acuminate, palmately 5-7-nerved, cordate at base, slightly or usually not at all lobed, 6-18 cm. long, 3-11 cm. wide, serrulate, sparsely hirsute on both sides or nearly glabrous above, thin, petioles slender, 4-15 cm. long, sparsely hirsute to glabrous, stipules deciduous, oblong, 12 mm. long, setose-mucronate, entire. Peduncles axillary, 2-5 cm. long. Cymes few-flowered, bisexual. Bracts tardily deciduous, broadly ovate or suborbicular, obtuse, 6-12 mm. long, entire. Pedicels 10-15 mm. long. Staminate tepals 4, the outer suborbicular or broadly ovate, 10-15 mm. long, pink, glabrous or at times somewhat pubescent, the inner slightly shorter, obovate, white. Stamens free, numerous, the filaments longer than the obovoid anthers. Pistillate bracteoles wanting or quickly deciduous. Pistillate tepals 3, the outer two suborbicular, 8-14 mm. long, the inner one much smaller, narrowly obovate or oblong. Ovary 2-3-celled, placentae bifid, ovuliferous on all sides, styles 3, short-connate, bilobed, the stigmatic surface linear, spiral, contin-uous. Capsule erect, broadly elliptic, 10-15 mm. long, hirsute to glabrous, wings 3 or sometimes up to 6, subequal, narrow, angled at middle or somewhat above giving the fruit a rhombic or obovate outline, entire to fimbriate-serrulate, seeds ellipsoid, broadly obtuse, short-stalked.
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