Lianas; stems glabrous, terete or 3-ribbed when young, usually markedly 3-ribbed in age; wood simple. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate, glabrous; petioles without wings, ribbed above, (2.5-)5-9(-11) cm long, to 14 cm on juveniles; rachis without wings; leaflets ovate to elliptic to ovate-elliptic, long-acuminate or rarely acute at the apex, the terminal leaflets attenuate, to obtuse or rounded at the base, entire to remotely coarse-crenate, (4-) 6-17 (-23) cm long, (2.2-) 3.5-8 (-9) cm wide, glandular-punctate, the reticulate venation prominulous on both surfaces; stipules lanceolate-linear, 8-12 mm long, striate, usually glabrate. In-f lorescences usually solitary thyrses 1-6.5 cm long, borne in the leaf axils, at leaf-less nodes, or on tendrils, sometimes glomerulate with up to 4 thyrses at a node; rachis and pedicels puberulous to glabrate; bracteoles ovate-deltoid, puberulous to glabrate, ciliate; pedicels articulate below the middle, 6-10 mm long in fruit. Flowers white, ca. 4 mm long; sepals 5, glabrous or puberulent, irregular, ciliate; petals obovate, to ca. 3 mm long, often asymmetrical, the anterior scales ca. 2 mm long, ciliolate, about as broad as long, the inner margins extending laterally and overlapping, the crest small, emarginate, the deflexed appendage longer than the crest, glabrous except the long-ciliolate margin, the cilia about twice as long as the appendage itself; disc glands semicircular, hispidulous throughout, lacking at the base of the lateral petals; stamens with filaments flattened, gla-brous; ovary pubescent near the apex; staminate flowers with 3 sessile stigmas; bisexual flowers with the style 3-branched at the middle. Capsules broadly ob-ovate, rarely elliptic, emarginate to almost truncate at the apex, red, conspicuously 3-winged, 3-celled, only 1 cell functional, 2-4 cm long, glabrous, the wings 3-7 (-13) mm diam., broadest toward the apex, the valves striate outside, tomentose inside, the body 2-3.4 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, the stipe 2-7 mm long; seed 1, ca. 9 mm long, ovoid to ellipsoid, black, sparsely pubescent, the lower half white-arillate.
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