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Climbers with tuberous rootstock; stems herbaceous, becoming woody when older. Leaves simple. Tendrils apically bifid. Flowers small, greenish-yellow, dioecious, regular. Male flowers in many-flowered axillary panicles; receptacle-tube very shallow; lobes and petals small; disk basal, surrounding the staminal column; thecae 2, each in the form of a semicircle, apical on a short central column and forming a single split horizontal ring. Female flowers in rather few-flowered axillary panicles or racemes; ovary compressed, 1-locular; ovule solitary, pendulous; perianth as in ♂ flower; disk basal, 3-angled; styles 3, very short, inserted on the disk. Fruit compressed, samaroid, one-seeded, elliptic in outline. Seed elliptic, compressed, rather large. Fig. 26, p. 149.