Monoecious, tendriled herbaceous or suffrutescent vines; stems 5-sulcate. Leaves petiolate, entire, angulate or palmately 3-to 5-lobate; tendrils simple or 2-branched. Staminate flowers solitary or few in the axils of the leaves; calyx campanulate, 5-lobate; corolla campanulate, 5-lobate almost to the base; stamens 3, the filaments free, the anthers connate, theca replicate, one unithecous, others bithecous. Pistillate flowers solitary in the axils of the leaves; calyx and corolla as in the staminate flowers, but smaller; ovary ovoid, the stigmas 3, forming a peltate, 3-lobed head. Fruits globose, peponiform, indehiscent; seeds numerous, horizontal, ovate or oblong, subcompressed, the testa smooth.
Home