Vines woody. Branches shallowly longitudinally 10--14-grooved, glabrous. Leaves pinnate or 2-pinnate, 5--15-foliolate, glabrous; petiole 3--8.5 cm; leaflet blades ovate-elliptic, ovate, narrowly ovate, or lanceolate, 3--13 × 1.5--5 cm, leathery to papery, abaxially reticulate or not, base rounded, broadly cuneate, subcordate, or truncate, margin entire, apex acuminate, acute, or attenuate; basal veins abaxially prominent. Cymes axillary or terminal, usually many flowered, paniclelike, glabrous; peduncle 1--8 cm; bracts sessile, subulate, 3--8 mm, sometimes petiolate, lanceolate, to 3.5 cm. Flowers 1.7--3 cm in diam. Pedicel 1--2.2 cm. Sepals 4, white, spreading, narrowly oblong to narrowly obovate-oblong, 6--15 × 2--7 mm, abaxially glabrous except for velutinous margin, adaxially glabrous, apex acute. Stamens (3--)8--11 mm, glabrous; anthers narrowly oblong to linear, 2.8--3.2 mm, apex minutely apiculate. Ovaries glabrous or pubescent. Style 5--8 mm, densely villous. Achenes subulate-terete, 5--7 × 1.4--1.8 mm, glabrous or pubescent; persistent style 1.5--2(--3) cm, plumose. Fl. Apr--Jul, fr. Jul--Nov.