Herbs, scandent. Stem and branches slender. Tendrils 2-fid. Leaves long petiolate; leaf blade ovate-cordate or broadly ovate-cordate, rarely hastate, margin irregularly dentate, usually 5-7-lobed. Plants dioecious or monoecious; flowers small, unisexual or rarely bisexual. Male flowers usually in a raceme; female flowers solitary or few in a raceme; calyx tube cupular or campanulate; segments 5, lanceolate or subulate; corolla segments 5, white, ovate; stamens 3, free or connate; filaments short; anthers: one 1-celled, two 2-celled; anther cells erect; connective produced or not; ovary ovoid or conical, 3-locular or irregularly 3-locular, 1 ovule in each locule; ovule pendulous; style short, 3-fid or sometimes 5-fid; stigma slightly expanded, 2-lobed. Fruit small, ovoid or conical, smooth or punctate, apex acute or long acuminate, 3-valved or indehiscent, 1-3-seeded. Seeds pendulous, ovate, compressed, margin irregularly dentate.

Eight species: E Asia to the Himalaya; eight species (five endemic) in China.

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