Woody climbers, evergreen or deciduous. Monoecious. Stems twining. Winter bud outer scales numerous, seriate. Leaves alternate, usually long petiolate; leaf blade palmately 3--9-foliolate or pinnately 3-foliolate; petiolules usually unequal with terminal one longest; leaflet margins entire. Inflorescences axillary, clustered, corymbiform racemes, rarely elongated racemes; several to many flowered. Sepals 6, greenish white or purple, oblong, slightly fleshy, outer 3 valvate, inner 3 usually smaller. Petals 6, minute, opposite stamens, rudimentarily nectariferous. Male flowers: stamens 6, free; connective apically appendaged or unappendaged. Pistillodes 3, minute. Female flowers: carpels 3, straight. Stigma terminal or oblique, often cleft. Fruit oblong to ellipsoid, fleshy, indehiscent. Seeds embedded in pulp.

Twenty species: SE Asia, China, Himalayas; nine species (five endemic) in China.