Details
Dioecious climbing or twining herbs, from a firm or woody corm, sometimes tuberous rhizome. Stem twining to the left or right, pubescent or glabrous, sometimes prickly. Leaves alternate or opposite, pulvinus at each end, ovate-cordate, simple, sometimes compound, with 3-7 digitate leaflets, petioles usually twisted, leaf tips generally with a prominent gland. Inflorescence of spike, raceme or panicle, usually in leaf-axils. Flowers unisexual, dioecious or monoecious, rarely bisexual, regular. Perianth segments 6, biseriate, campanulate, or rotate, basally united. Stamens 6, in two whorls, anthers introrse or extrorse, dehiscing longitudinally. Styles 3, ovary inferior, triquetrous, 3-locular, ovules 2 in each locule. Fruit a capsule or berry, dehiscent, 3-winged. Seeds sometimes winged, compressed.