Cissampelos

Twining lianas, sometimes rambling shrubs or perennial herbs, rarely erect. Leaves simple, sometimes subpeltate, ovate or cordate, entire or angular. Inflorescences axillary, with male flowers in paniculate cymes; female flowers in corymbose cymules which are either solitary or clustered or arranged in +/- false racemes, less developed than male flowers. Male flowers: sepals (3)4(5), obovate, often spreading, mostly dorsally pilose; petals 2-4, connate into a cup- or saucer-shaped corolla; stamens connate into a 4-10-locular synandrium, expanded and peltate above; anthers sessile, in a marginal ring on disc of staminal column, with transverse dehiscence. Female flowers: sepal 1, rarely more, obovate, dorsally pilose; petal l, rarely 2 or 3, smaller than sepal and alternating with sepals, both often deciduous; staminodes 0; carpel 1, +/- villous; stigma 3-fid. Drupe subglobose, often pilose, bent so that apex with stigma approaches pedicel; endocarp bony, horseshoe-shaped, with 1 dorsal ridge, sides with small transverse often verrucose ribs; condyle narrowly obovate. Seed with sparse endosperm; embryo curved; cotyledons appressed. x= 12.