Description
Key Characters:
Growth Form:
Climbing shrubs or woody lianas.
Stems:
Roots:
Leaves:
Leaves simple.
Alternate.
Margins entire.
Veins pinnate.
Petiolate.
Stipules absent.
Flowers:
Flowers in inflorescences 1– or few–flowered clusters; peduncle recurved, woody, persistent, forming a hook.
Flowers bisexual (perfect), often fragrant. Torus flat or concave.
Calyx of 3 sepals; sepals hypogynous, valvate, connate at base.
Corolla of 6 petals, in 2 whorls; petals hypogynous, pale yellowish, subequal, with each whorl valvate, base concave, apex connivent.
Stamens hypogynous, numerous, in several series, outermost series sometimes forming staminodes; filaments very short and thick; anther locules 2, opening by a longitudinal slit; connectives apically dilated, apex truncate.
Ovary superior; carpels 4 to many; ovules 2 per carpel, basal; styles thick, short; stigmas ovoid, oblong, or clavate.
Fruit:
Fruit apocarpous; monocarps fasciculate; sessile or shortly stipitate; ellipsoid–obovoid or globose; fleshy and berrylike.
Seeds 1 or 2 per monocarp; without an aril; endosperm copious; ruminate; embryo minute; near hilum.
Ploidy:
Habitat:
Elevation Range: