Tendrilled lianas; younger stems merely striate or obscurely 3-6-ribbed, the older stems prominently 3-ribbed, each rib consisting of 2 small strands loosely attached to a much larger central core; sap milky; wood composite, usually with 3 pairs of small, terete, peripheral bundles, one of the pairs sometimes united to form a single bundle; tendrils forked; stem, petiole, and rachis puberulous to hirsute. Leaves 2-3 (-5)-pinnate in 4-6 sets, glabrate to hirsute, especially on the midrib above and on the lower leaflet surface; petioles ribbed; leaf rachis nar-rowly winged; leaflets small, acute to acuminate, the acumen often rounded and mucronate, acute to attenuate at the base, 1-3.5 cm long, 0.7-2 cm wide, the terminal leaflet rhomboid, often 3-lobed, the lateral leaflets ovate-elliptic, crenate, sessile. Thyrses racemose and axillary or in terminal racemose panicles, less than 15 cm long. Flowers white, 2-3 mm long, shortly pedicellate; petals ca. 1.7 mm long, obovate, the anterior petals borne on the outer face of large glands, their scales with yellow, prominently bilobed crests, the deflexed appendages densely villous throughout, united as a single unit, pendent to the apex of the glands, the lateral petals borne on top of glands, their crests slender, entire, usually white; staminal cluster leaning away from the center of the flower, the filaments villous; ovary glabrous. Fruits ovate-cordate, 1.5-2.1 cm long, as broad as or broader than long, weakly viscid, the seed-bearing part sparsely hirsute with raised veins, the wings glabrous or sparsely hirsute on the inner margin, reddish at maturity, constricted at or just below the base of the cell.
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