Description:
Dioecious lianes, up to 30 m or longer. Leaves pedately 3-7-foliolate. Tendrils proximally bifid. Probracts present. Flowers unisexual, large, purplish. Male flowers many, racemose; receptacle tube short, broad; lobes dentate; petals 5, free, fringed with filaments; stamens 5 or 3, if 5, then all 2-thecous, if 3, then two 4-thecous, one 2-thecous, free; filaments arising on receptacle tube; thecae straight or slightly arcuate. Female flowers solitary; perianth similar to that of male flower; ovary ribbed; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit very large, fleshy, ribbed, many-seeded, tardily dehiscent by 10 longitudinal valves. Seeds large, broadly ovate or suborbicular in outline, compressed, enclosed in a fibrous endocarpic sheath.
Distribution:
Species 3, Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 2, Angola, Zambia and probably native in N Mozambique, often cultivated for its edible oily seeds.
Source:
SSTA
Classification:
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