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Herbaceous vines. Leaf blade peltate, palmately veined. Inflorescences axillary. Male flowers: sepals 4-10, ± spirally arranged, usually concave; petals 6-8 or more, ± fleshy, reniform-cordate to rotund, margin inflexed; stamens 12-18[-36], free, anther subglobose, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flower; staminodes 6-12 or more, clavate; carpels 2-4, ovary saccate-semiovoid, style short, stigma large and lobed, curved outward. Drupes suboblate, style scar near base; endocarp reniform-rounded or broadly half-moon-shaped, rather flattened; condyle lamella-shaped. Seed embryo annularly curved; endosperm rich; cotyledons semiterete, slightly longer than radicle.
Sep (4–)6(–8), longer than the 6–9 pet; stamens 12–24; pistils (2–)3(–4); drupe subglobose, developing obliquely, the terminal stigmatic scar far to one side at maturity; stone flattened, thickened into 3 rough ridges over most of its margin; woody twiners, with broad lvs peltate near the margin. 2, the other in e. Asia.
