Cocculus

Scandent shrubs or climbers, rarely prostrate or erect, sometimes fleshy. Leaves simple, entire or lobed, sometimes falling before flowering. Inflorescences: axillary cymes, rarely flowers solitary in female. Male flowers: sepals 6 or 9, in 2 or 3 whorls, outer ones smaller, often pilose; petals 6, entire or bifid, concave or involute around stamens; stamens 6 or 9, free; anthers with a transverse dehiscence. Female flowers similar to male; staminodes 6 or 0; carpels (3)4-6, +/- ovoid; ovule solitary; style cylindrical, erect or recurved, or stigmas sessile and recurved. Drupe obovate or subspherical-compressed, with persistent style or stigma; endocarp bony, horseshoe-shaped, transversely ridged; condyle +/- circular, septum usually perforated. Seed curved; endosperm present as a thin layer, not ruminate. x= 13 (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes).