Vines, herbaceous or somewhat woody, sometimes erect. Leaves opposite, often subcoriaceous, glabrous. Inflorescences usually umbelliform or racemiform, few-or many-flowered, pedunculate from the leaf axils. Flowers usually green-ish to whitish; calyx 5-lobed, with usually 5 glands inside at the base, generally short, ovate, obtuse; corolla valvate in bud, 5-lobed halfway or more to the base, the lobes ciliate or sometimes glabrous, campanulate; stamens affixed to the base of the corolla, the corona of 5 semi-vesicular sacs attached to the staminal tube, connate to the corolla or free from it, or of 5 membranous erect, cucullate, concave, or cymbiform segments with internal appendages, the filaments con-nate into a short tube, the anthers terminating in an inflexed membrane; pollinia pendulous, generally ovoid; stigma circular, apically depressed or shortly um-bonate. Fruits a single follicle, smooth, mostly terete, apically acuminate; seeds comose.
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