Large, stout, sarmentose, climbing shrub; simple or bifid leaf opposed tendrils; leaves simple, digitate or pedate, suborbicular, cordate, more or less deeply 5-lobed, margin unequally cut into acute teeth, often clothed with grey, deciduous, tomentose; flowers bisexual or polygamous on long peduncles, destitate of tendrils in paniculate cymes; disc of 5-glands; pedicels elongated in fruits; sepals 4-5, cup shaped, pubescent outside; petals 4-5, white, free or connate, hooded at apex, deciduous; stamens 4-5, inserted below the margins of disk; anther free; ovary globose, usually 2-locular, 2 ovules in each; style very short, thick; stigma obtuse; berries globose or oblong, succulent, varying in size, pale green or sometimes purple, 1-4 seeded; seeds oblong, obovoid or pyriform, brown.