Tall lianes with terete stems, conspicuously pubescent, particularly the younger growths. Latex absent. Stipules small, obscured by the hairs. Leaves opposite, petiolate; blade entire, with stellate hairs especially beneath. Inflorescence of paired cymes, without accessory branches, the cymes often combining to form large panicles; bracts caducous. Flowers large, pedicellate, 12–15 mm. in diameter; buds subglobose, enclosed to the apex by the sepals. Petals 5, imbricate, pubescent, unguiculate, with conspicuously fimbriate margins. Disc spreading, many-lobed, separated by a constriction from an expanded fleshy androgynophore which is crowned with hairs. Stamens 3, the filaments bent outwards; anthers with extrorse transverse dehiscence; pollen simple, tricolporate, coarsely reticulate. Ovary with 3 locules, each with many ovules; stigma punctiform. Fruit dry with 3 dehiscent mericarps, each with 2 non-caducous valves; valves densely lined with hairs. Seeds densely pubescent around the embryo, with a well-developed wing which has both a marginal vein and marginal raphe (i.e. raphe is not submedian); no pocket-like structure at the point of attachment (such as occur in Simirestis and Pristimera) but sometimes with the vestiges of arils.
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