Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Scandent shrubs or lianas.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Surfaces conspicuously glandular punctate or with secretory lines. Margins entire to crenate. Pinnately veined. Petiolate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in terminal or axillary, paniculate, racemose, or fasciculate inflorescences,bracteate, but bracteoles absent. Flowers unisexual (and the plants dioecious), small, pedicellate. Calyx deeply 4–5(6)-lobed, the lobes imbricate, glandular punctate. Corolla of 4–5(6), distinct or scarcely coherent at base, narrowly imbricate in bud. Stamens as many as and opposite petals, inserted near base of petals, occasionally appearing fully developed in pistillate flowers, but sterile; anthers dithecal, introrse. Ovary superior, 3–5(6)-carpellate, 1-celled; ovules few in a single row, ovary rudimentary in staminate flowers; style short, terminal; stigma 2-lobed to capitate or disciform.

Fruit: Fruit a subglobose drupe; endocarp crustaceous; style not persistent. Seeds 1 per fruit; small; dark colored; subglobose; often excavated at base.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: