Climbers, woody. Stem subglabrous. Leaves petiolate, undivided, margin entire. Tendrils simple or bifid. Plants dioecious; male flowers in lax pendulous panicles; female flowers in racemes. Male flower: calyx tube shortly cupular; segments 3, rarely 4, membranous, concave; corolla rotate; segments 5, apex narrow and inflexed in flower bud; stamens 5, free, all of same length, inserted on a fleshy disk; filaments short, thick; anthers oblong, 1-celled; pistillode absent. Female flowers: calyx as in male flowers; staminodes 5, very short, alternate with petals; ovary inferior, at first 3-loculed, ultimately 1-loculed; styles 3, spreading, apex bifid; ovules in each locule 2 or many, pendulous, attached in 2 series to a fleshy parietal placenta. Fruit a capsule, large, narrowly cylindric, clavate, 3-valved at truncate apex. Seeds pendulous, large, oblong, compressed, surrounded by a large membranous wing.

One species: Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.

(Authors: Lu Anmin (路安民 Lu An-ming); Charles Jeffrey)