Paederia

Straggling or climbing shrubs, usually fetid. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, petiolate, +/- cordate, thin; stipules intrapetiolar, ovate to narrowly triangular, deciduous. Flowers usually pedicellate, in axillary and terminal pedunculate clusters, or solitary. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes subulate, elongate, recurving, persistent; tube campanulate or ovoid. Corolla white, salver-shaped, aestivation valvate; tube cylindric, longer than calyx, at length splitting at base. Stamens 5, arising in or near mouth of corolla tube; filaments short. Disc small. Ovary 2- or 3-locular, with a solitary, erect ovule in each locule; style filiform; stigma lobes 2 or 3, filiform, included or exserted. Fruit dorsally compressed or 3-sided; epicarp membranous, shiny, bursting in a valvate manner from base; pyrenes 2 or 3, compressed. Seeds same shape as pyrenes and intimately associated with them. x = 11 (aneuploids, high polyploidy).