Small herbaceous vines; stems 6-costate, glabrate. Leaves biternate; petioles terete, 0.5-4 cm long; leaflets oblong to lanceolate, obtuse or subacute at the apex, attenuate-petiolate at the base, 1.5-4.5 cm long, 0.5-1.8 cm wide, deeply incised-dentate, membranous, rugulose, sparsely strigose especially on veins, the midrib sharply raised; stipules minute, scabrous. Thyrses long-pedunculate on a tendril, umbellike in appearance. Flowers white; sepals 4, the outer 2 small, rugulose, strigose, the inner 2 twice as large, rugulose, glabrous, obovate, 2.3 mm long, 2 mm wide, concave; petals obovate, 2-2.5 mm long, the anterior scales free or fused to about the middle of the petal, densely villous to glabrous except along the villous margins, the deflexed appendage deltoid, villous along the margin, the crest broadly obovate, as broad as long, the lateral petals with the scale sparsely villous to almost glabrous, the appendage lacking, the crest as in the anterior pet-als; disc with 2 broad glands; stamens 8, the filaments villous; bisexual flowers with the stamens to ca. 1 mm long, the ovary obcordate, 3-sided, densely villous, to 1.8 mm long, the style 3-lobed to about the middle, ca. 1 mm long; staminate flowers with the stamens to 3 mm long, the ovary nearly glabrous, 3-sided, the stigmas 3, about as long as ovary, together with the ovary ca. 1 mm long. Capsules inflated, obreniform, 3-lobed, 1 cm long, 2 cm broad, sparsely pubescent; seed globose, 4 mm long, black, shiny, the hilum obcordate, white.
More
A climber. It grows 1-3 m tall. It grows each year from seeds. The stem is slender and with a strong furrow. Young parts are hairy. The leaves are alternate and leaflets arranged in 2 groups of three. The leaf stalks are 5-8 cm long. The flowers are small and white. They are on long slender stalks. The fruit is an inflated capsule with 3 chambers.
Home