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Lianas, scandent or sometimes erect shrubs, rarely small trees. Leaves decussate very rarely associated with some subopposite ones. Inflorescences axillary, sometimes crowded on short shoots, dichotomously cymose, or rarely paniculate, usually with supplementary branchlets in the dichotomies or in the axils of branchlets. Flowers small. Calyx lobes 5, imbricate. Petals 5, imbricate, erect or suberect at anthesis. Disk extrastaminal, inconspicuous, most of it usually united with the ovary, the uppermost part slightly extended outward ± like a rim. Stamens 3, inserted at the base of the free part of the pistil; anthers transverse-oblong, extrorse. Ovary 3-celled, its free part globose or obscurely 3-sulcate; style short; stigma obscure. Ovules usually 2, rarely 4-8 in each cell. Fruit capsular, consisting of 3 divergent, separate 'follicles' which dehisce along an inconspicuous median suture into 2 navicular valves. Seeds with a basal, ± transparent, membranous wing, the latter with a distinct submedian and a thick marginal 'nerve'; endosperm 0; cotyledons free (always?).
