Perennial, twining or spreading shrub with tuberous roots; stem and branches slender, grooved or angular, scarcely hairy; tendrils simple; leaves petiolate, palmately 5-angled, occassionly 5-lobed or toothed, base cordate, margins distantly gland tipped, surface shining; flowers large, white; male flowers: penduncles 1-flowered, jointed below the flower; calyx broadly campanulate, tube glabrous, 5-lobed, lobes short, linear-oblong, reflexed; corolla campanulate, 5-lobed about half way down, pubescent inside, glabrous outside, lobes triangular, acute; stamens 3, exserted, filaments connate, anthers sub-globose, one anther 1-celled, 2-anthers 2-celled; female flowers solitary, axillary; calyx and corolla same as in male flowers, staminodes 3, subulate; ovary oblong or fusiform, glabrous, slightly ribbed; style long with 3, bifid stigmas, ovules many; fruits indehiscent, fleshy, cylindric, smooth; seeds many, ovoid, compressed, margined, embedded in red pulp.