Dioecious, rarely monoecious, tendriled vines or lianas; stems 5-to 10-sulcate. Leaves petiolate, simple, entire, lobate, or 3-to 5-foliolate; tendrils simple. Staminate flowers axillary, in racemes, or umbelloid heads; calyx tubular, 5-lobate; corolla 5-lobate, the lobes erect or only spreading; stamens 2, sessile or subsessile, free, attached to the hypanthium wall, the anthers straight or repli-cate. Pistillate flowers in axillary, fascicles, racemes, umbelloid heads, or flow-ers solitary; calyx and corolla similar to the staminate flowers; ovary oblong, 3-carpellate, the ovules numerous, horizontal, the styles 2, connate, erect, the stigmas 2. Fruits oblong to fusiform, cylindrical, indehiscent; seeds elliptic ovate, compressed.
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