Cyphostemma

Erect, prostrate or climbing, perennial herbs, shrubs or trees with succulent stems usually caudiciform. Tendrils leaf-opposed or 0. Leaves digitately 3-9-foliolate, sometimes simple or palmate, sessile or petiolate, margins variously toothed; stipules present. Flowers in leaf-opposed or axillary, +/- corymbose cymes; buds cylindric or flask-shaped and constricted +/- in middle, apex rounded and often +/- inflated. Calyx entire or 4-toothed. Corolla yellow, yellowish green, sometimes with maroon in upper part; petals 4, hooded at apex, becoming deflexed, soon deciduous. Disc of 4 fleshy, truncate or conical glands, +/- free from each other, but somewhat adnate to ovary. Stamens 4; anthers with straight filaments. Ovary with 2 incompletely separated locules, each with 2 ovules; style simple, subulate; stigma minutely 2-fid, subentire or subcapitate. Fruit a berry, ovoid or ellipsoid, glabrous or variously hairy. Seed usually 1, often crested and rugose. x = 11 (polyploidy).