Woody vines. Leaf blade usually ovate, peltate, palmately 3-5-veined. Inflorescences axillary, botryoid, racemose or narrowly paniculate. Male flowers: sepals 6-12, imbricate, outer whorl minute and bracteolelike, inner whorl large; petals 6, small, with basal inflexed auricles clasping opposite stamen; stamens 6, free, anthers corpulent, dehiscing with a transverse slit. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flowers; staminodes 6, shorter than petal; carpels 3, with one side swollen, ovate, glabrous, style curved outward. Drupes obovate or rotund, slightly compressed, style scar near base; endocarp bony, reniform-rounded, slightly concave on each side; condyle small, subspatulate. Seed curved; endosperm absent or scanty; cotyledons large, thick, much longer than radicle.

Ten to twelve species: S and SE Asia and Oceania; three species (all endemic) in China.