Herbs , perennial, from creeping, yellow, thick rhizomes. Leaves basal and cauline, simple, petiolate; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade palmately 3-9-lobed [variously divided], broadly cordate-orbiculate, margins serrate. Inflorescences terminal, solitary flowers; bracts absent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit, 3, greenish white to creamy white, plane, ovate, oval, or elliptic, 3.5-7 mm; petals absent; stamens 50-75; filaments abruptly narrowed near apex; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 5-15, simple; ovules 2 per ovary; style short. Fruits berries, aggregate, sessile, spheric, sides not veined; beak terminal, ± straight, 0.6-1 mm. Seeds black, ellipsoid, smooth, lustrous. x = 13.
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Sep 3, petaloid, falling when the fl opens; pet none; stamens and pistils numerous; styles very short; ovules 2; berries dark red, 1–2-seeded, forming a head; rhizomes knotty, yellow, containing berberine; perennial herbs with alternate lvs and a solitary, terminal fl. 2, the other Asian.
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