Climbing dioecious or monoecious herbs with simple leaves. Tendrils simple. Flowers small, white, becoming cream or yellowish-green with age.
Male flowers solitary or in raceme- or umbel-like axillary clusters; corolla 5-lobed; stamens 2-3(-4), all 2-thecous; disk elevated and free from the receptacle-tube.
Female flowers in similar inflorescences to the male; ovary smooth, glabrous to pubescent; staminodes often present, 3; disk annular. Fruit a berry, usually red and glabrous. Worldwide: 30 species in the tropics of the Old World Malawi: 4 taxa. |
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