Lianas; stems with 8 or 16 phloem arms in cross section; branchlets terete, with or without interpetiolar glandular fields; pseudostipules inconspicuous or lacking. Leaves 2-3-foliolate, the terminal leaflet often replaced by a simple tendril; vegetative parts often with a conspicuous almond (cyanide) odor. Inflorescence an axillary or terminal raceme or racemose panicle. Flowers fragrant, calyx cupular, more or less truncate, sometimes minutely 5-denticulate, often with plate-shaped glands in the upper part; corolla white, elongate-tubular to hypocrateriform, pubescent or glabrous without; stamens usually more or less exserted, anthers glabrous, the thecae straight or arcuate, somewhat diver-gent; pollen grains single, 3-colpate or irregularly many-porate, the exine finely reticulate; ovary oblong, lepidote, the ovules multiseriate in each locule; disc cupular-pulvinate. Fruit an oblong-cylindric capsule, the valves parallel to the septum, thick, woody, not at all compressed, smooth, the median nerve invisible or furrowed, wingless or bialate with brownish irregularly-edged, poorly demarcated membranaceous wings.
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