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Scrambling or climbing shrubs, rarely herbs; aerial roots present. Leaves ± densely crowded, linear or lanceolate, basally with membranous, marcescent or caducous sheath margins. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, consisting of pedunculate simple spadices (usually 2-5), arranged in an umbel or short raceme and initially enclosed by several crowded, 3-seriate, green or colored, caducous spathes. Flowers unisexual, rarely bisexual; perianth absent. Stamens densely congested on rachis. Ovaries densely congested on rachis, usually surrounded by minute staminodes, 1-locular; ovules numerous, congested on 2 or more parietal placentae; stigmas 2 or more, separate or confluent. Fruit a berry, with or without a hardened apex. Seeds numerous.
Spadices us. clustered near stem apex, enclosed within ± coloured deciduous bracts. Fls without per. ♂ polyandrous, sts with distinct rudimentary ovary; filaments us. filiform. ♀ often with staminodes; ovary 1-to ∞-carpellate, unilocular with parietal placentae, solid above; stigmas sessile, us. hippocrepiform, separate or confluent. Frs ± fleshy to almost woody, tightly packed together. Mostly root-climbers. Lvs ± scabrid on margins and midrib. About 60 spp. Mostly in and around the western Pacific, including northern and eastern Queensland. The one N.Z. sp. is the most southerly, and is endemic.
