Clambering subglabrous shrubs or vines to 3 m. high. Leaves glabrous or slightly pilose, broadly lanceolate to ovate, apically acute to acuminate and mucronate, basally truncate to acute, 3-14 cm. long, 1-6 cm. broad; petioles 0.5-3.5 cm. long. Inflorescences of glomerules paniculately disposed, the pubescent primary rhachis usually visible at intervals. Flowers perfect, some usually sterile, subsessile; bracts 1-3, broadly deltoid, carinate, mucronate, with membranaceous margins, 1-1.5 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. broad; sepals 5, subequal, ovate, concave, acute to mucronate, 5-nerved, greenish white, 2.5-4 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. broad; stamens 5; filaments 1.5-3 mm. long; filament tube 0.5-1 mm. long, often basally adnate to the ovary; anthers globose to oblong; ovary at anthesis tympaniform to globose, usually as broad as long and truncate or flanged at the summit; style 1, 0.5-1 mm. long, usually shorter than the stigmata; stigmata 2 (-3), erect at anthesis, reflexed in fruit. Fruit a utricle, exserted, circumscissile near the middle, compressed ovoid, the summit conspicuously operculate and truncate to incon-spicuously operculate and rounded, 3-5 mm. long, 2-3.5 mm. broad, aril bivalvate, becoming wrinkled, brownish white, completely investing the seeds; seeds smooth but punctate, black, lustrous, 2-2.5 mm. broad.
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Climbing liana to 15(-20) m or more; stems glabrous or puberulent. Petiole to 6.5 cm long; blade elliptical, ovate or lanceolate, to ca. 15 x 9 cm, apex acuminate, base cuneate to rounded. Inflorescence more or less elongate, often branched; glomerules 1-to 4-flowered; inflorescence-axes puberulent; bracts and bracteoles 1.5 mm long, pale green, glabrous, keeled, sometimes distally mucronate by prolongation of keel-vein; tepals yellowish-green, whitish-green or cream, scarious, 2.7-4.2 mm long, sometimes mucronate, 3-veined; stamens white, shorter than perianth; ovary truncate, with narrow ring of indurated tissue above middle, stigmas 2. Fruit with persistent, 0.4-1 mm long style; seed reniform, 1.3-2.5 mm long, enveloped in loose, membranous, transparent aril, testa black, shining, minutely striate and finely etched with hexagonal patterns (20 x loupe).
A vine or climbing plant. The stem is thick and woody. The stems are 2-3 m or more long. The branches hang down. The leaves are alternate. The leaves are oval or sword shaped. They are 8-14 cm long by 3-7 cm wide. The edges are wavy. The flowers are in groups at the ends of the branches. These are 4-16 cm long. The fruit is an oval capsule. It is 3-4 mm long. The seeds are brown and shiny with a white covering.
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