Information

Flowers monœcious, those of the two sexes together, enveloped by two showy bracts; petals 0; disc 0. Male: Calyx closed in bud, splitting into 4–6 valvate lobes. Stamens usually 20–30, rarely more or fewer; filaments united in a short or long column; anthers erect, 2-celled; cells parallel, dehiscing longitudinally. Rudimentary ovary 0. Female: Calyx usually 6-partite, lobes more or less 2-seriately imbricate, or 5-partite, quincuncial, rarely more than 6-partite; segments pinnatifid or fimbriate, less often lanceolate entire, often accrescent and coriaceous in fruit. Ovary 3-celled, rarely 4-celled; ovules solitary in each cell; styles united in a long column; stigma capitate, small or dilated, entire or lobulate. Capsule 3-dymous, rarely 4-dymous, breaking up into 2-valved cocci; endocarp crustaceous or woody. Seeds globose or ellipsoid, without a strophiole; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat. Undershrubs, twining or climbing; leaves alternate, long-petioled, entire or 3–5-lobed or -partite; racemes axillary, sessile or peduncled, usually congested and subcapitate, surrounded by the 2 large veined and usually brightly coloured simple or lobed involucral bracts; flowers sessile or shortly pedicelled, the outer and lower female, usually 3 to a bract; the inner and upper 3 or more to each bract; capsules sometimes small, with rounded cocci, sometimes large with hard angular cocci.