MENISPERMACEAE  

Herbaceous or woody lianas, sometimes small rambling shrubs, or sometimes stems +/- succulent and brittle. Leaves cordate, simple, entire, occasionally dentate, palmately 5-7-nerved, rarely pinnate, with long petioles. Inflorescences: pseudopanicles, pseudoracemes or pseudospikes, 2-4-flowered or flowers solitary. Male flowers: sepals 6 (occasionally 1-3 additional, minute, outer ones present), usually free, rarely united at base, outer 3 smaller than inner, hyaline or membranous; petals (3)6, fleshy, involute, embracing filaments, inner 3 shorter than outer which are shorter than inner sepals; stamens (3)6; filaments free or usually connate to +/- middle; anthers erect, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Female flowers similar to male; staminodes 6 or 0, opposite petals; carpels 3; ovary obliquely ovoid; stigma sessile, oblique. Drupelets 3 or fewer; unequally ovoid; exocarp pulpy; endocarp bony, ovoidal or ellipsoidal, often +/- verrucose or tuberculate outside, often with a few teeth; condyle a deep globular cavity on ventral side. Seed with endosperm fleshy, ruminate; embryo reniform; cotyledons foliaceous, divaricate. x= 12, 13.

Woody or rarely herbaceous lianas, sometimes with succulent stems. Leaves simple, peltate, triangular, ovate or suborbicular. Inflorescences: umbelliform cymes, which are sometimes condensed to disciform capitula, often cauliflorous, rarely panicles. Male flowers: sepals 6 or 8, in 2 whorls, mostly subequal, concave, obovate; petals 3(4), free, similar to sepals, rarely 0; stamens 2-6, arranged in a disc-shaped stalked synandrium; anthers sessile, confluent into a single ring around margin, with transverse dehiscence. Female flowers similar to male, but sepals 1-8, free; petals 2-4, free; staminodes usually 0; carpel l; style small or 0; stigma shortly lobed or divided into 3-6 branches. Drupe with exocarp smooth, glabrous or hairy; endocarp bony, horseshoe-shaped, laterally concave with 2-4 longitudinal rows of tubercles or transverse ridges; condyle obovate, somewhat concave on either side with its septum smooth, imperforate. Seed curved, with endosperm; cotyledons appressed. x= 11, 12, 13.

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.

Suffrutescent, twining lianas with greyish hairs. Leaves simple, broadly elliptic. Inflorescences with male flowers small, in 1-many-flowered condensed axillary cymules, solitary or 2 together, subsessile or pedunculate; female flowers axillary, usually solitary. Male flowers: sepals 6-12, outer 6-9 in 1 or 2 whorls, free, imbricate, bract-like, 3 innermost larger, coriaceous, valvate, connate into a fleshy corolliform tube; petals 3, 6 or 0, truncate-reniform, fleshy; stamens connate into a 15-30-locular synandrium, conical, stipitate; anthers with transverse dehiscence. Female flowers similar to male; staminodes 6; carpels 4-12, hairy. Drupe ellipsoid; exocarp echinulate; endocarp crustaceous or thinly woody, slightly wrinkled; condyle 0. Seed without endosperm; embryo straight; cotyledons very thick.