Erect or climbing perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent (quadrangularis); tendrils leaf-opposed or 0. Stipules present. Leaves simple (in ours), lobed or digitately 3-7-foliolate. Flowers 4-merous, bisexual, in leaf-opposed or terminal cymes. Fl. bud conic, not constricted at the middle. Disk annular, entire or lobed. Seeds 1(-2).