A widely scandent shrub; branches patent, angular, multisulcate between the angles, glandular-pubescent; tendrils (modified peduncles?) supra-axillary, forked, 2–4 in. long. Leaves oblong-ovate or ovate-elliptic, acuminate or cuspidate, usually cuneate at the base, quite entire, membranous, glabrous, 2 1/2–3 1/2 in. long, 1 1/2–2 in. wide, drying black; petiole 3–6 lin. long, channelled above, pubescent. Racemes 3–6 in. long, increasing to 1 ft. in fruit, bearing fascicles of about 3 flowers about 6 lin. apart; bracts ovate, acuminate, fleshy, membranous at the margins. Perianth-tube short; lobes oblong, acuminate, 2 lin. long, the three outer wider than the two inner, rosy inside, suberect during flowering, becoming connivent, hard and dusky purple in fruit. Pedicel in fruit nearly 3 in. long and 4 lin. wide, crimson.
