Source:
SSA
Synonym(s):
Cissus L. in part; Harvey: 249 (1860).
Description:
Shrubs, often with scandent branches, or +/- woody climbers. Tendrils leaf-opposed, sometimes 0. Leaves simple or 3-foliolate, rarely digitately 5-foliolate, usually petiolate, margins entire or variously toothed; stipules usually present. Flowers in condensed, leaf-opposed thyrsoid cymes; peduncles occasionally cirrhose; buds subglobose. Calyx entire or slightly lobed. Corolla green, greenish yellow, yellow or cream; petals (4)5 or 6, thickened or fleshy at apex. Disc thick, entire, with ovary immersed in it. Stamens as many as petals, conspicuously bending over gynoecium. Ovary with 2 incompletely separated locules, each with 2 ovules; style simple; stigma capitate. Fruit subglobose, glabrous, often warted. Seeds 1 or 2(-4), smooth or rugose, usually with a conspicuous longitudinal dorsal furrow and with or without basal projection. x = 10 (polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species 10, in Africa; 7 in the eastern parts of sthn Afr., absent from Namibia, Botswana and Northern Cape.
Classification:
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