Helictonema

Tall lianes with terete stems, conspicuously pubescent, particularly the younger growths; latex absent. Leaves opposite, petiolate; blade entire, with stellate hairs especially beneath; stipules small, obscured by hairs. Inflorescence of paired cymes, without accessory branches, cymes often combining to form large panicles; bracts caducous. Flowers large, pedicellate, 12-15 mm in diameter; buds subglobose, enclosed to apex by sepals. Petals 5, imbricate, pubescent, unguiculate, with conspicuously fimbriate margins. Disc spreading, many-lobed, separated by a constriction from an expanded fleshy androgynophore which is crowned with hairs. Stamens 3; filaments bent outwards; anthers with extrorse transverse dehiscence; pollen simple, tricolporate, coarsely reticulate. Ovary with 3 locules, each with many ovules; stigma punctiform. Fruit dry with 3 dehiscent mericarps, each with 2 non-caducous valves; valves densely lined with hairs. Seeds densely pubescent around embryo, with a well-developed wing which has both a marginal vein and marginal raphe (i. e. raphe is not submedian); no pocket-like structure at point of attachment (such as occurs in Simirestis and Pristimera ) but sometimes with the vestiges of arils.