Climbing or prostrate, monoecious,
herbs. Leaves simple, petiolate. Tendrils simple. Flowers very small.
Male flowers in sessile fascicles, shortly pedicellate. Corolla lobes
5, united below. Stamens 3, two 2-thecous, one single 1-thecous.
Female flowers also in sessile fascicles, ± sessile or shortly
pedicellate; staminodes 3, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit spherical (in ours), smooth, red, usually glabrous when mature. Worldwide: 4 species in the Old World tropics Zimbabwe: 1 taxon. |
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