Herbaceous or semi-woody vines, scandent or sometimes prostrate, variously pubescent or glabrate. Leaves petiolate, usually cordate, sometimes rounded or cuneate basally, glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescence umbelliform or racemiform, pedunculate or subsessile, usually few-flowered. Flowers green, rarely reddish, yellow or white; calyx 5-parted, usually with a single gland at the base of each sinus within; corolla rotate to subcampanulate, the tube usually short, the lobes linear to suborbicular, contorted in bud, the faucal annulus inconspicuous or prominent, usually ciliate; stamens inserted at the base of the corolla, the corona inconspicuous or prominent, carnose, usually 5-lobed, the filaments forming a short tube, the anthers short and broad, dorsally appendaged, the appendages fleshy, usually conspicuous, laminate, variable in form, entire to bi-or trifurcate; pollinia solitary in each theca, inserted horizontally or nearly so, ovoid to pyri-form, conspicuously excavated on one face and with a sterile hyaline portion near the attachment of the translators; stigma apically depressed, sharply 5-angular. Follicles variously shaped, usually glabrous, smooth, tuberculate, or winged; seeds comose.
Home