Home
Plants erect or scandent, simple or branching, with a stoloniferous corm. Leaves alternate, opposite, or verticillate and clustered, sometimes falcate or ending in a tendril. Flowers large and showy, solitary in leaf axils (sometimes corymbose); pedicel erect, recurved apically. Perianth segments free, (strongly) reflexed, clawed at the base, sometimes falcate. Stamens free; filaments filiform or sometimes flattened; anthers narrowly linear-oblong, dorsifixed, versatile, dehiscing latrorsely to extrorsely by longitudinal slits. Ovary (narrowly) elliptic-oblong to oblong; style entire in the lower part, trifid towards the apex with 3 subulate forks obliquely stigmatose at the apex, bent at right angles at the base. Capsule oblong, loculicidal, coriaceous; seeds globose, fleshy, red.
Perennial herbs with erect or climbing annual stems arising from thick rhizomes. Roots fibrous. Leaves alternate, sessile, produced into a recurved tendril; veins many, convergent. Flowers bisexual, solitary in leaf axils, pedicellate. Perianth actinomorphic, spreading to reflexed. Sepals and petals equal, free, articulated at base; nectaries present. Stamens 6, free; filaments filiform; anthers extrorse, dorsifixed, dehiscing by slits. Ovary superior, 3-locular; ovules in 2 rows per loculus; style apically trifid; stigmas 3, short. Fruit a septicidal capsule. Seeds numerous, strophiolate, the outer layer fleshy, red.
Herbs perennial, with a stout, tuberous rhizome. Stem sometimes branched, usually elongate and scandent. Leaves cauline, alternate, opposite, or whorled, subsessile, apex bearing a tendril. Flowers few, long pedicellate, sometimes in a corymb, large, showy. Tepals 6, free, spreading or reflexed, persistent. Stamens 6, inserted at base of tepals; filaments filiform; anthers versatile. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules many per locule. Style long, filiform, apically 3-lobed, adaxially stigmatic. Fruit a capsule. Seeds subglobose; testa bright red, spongy.
