Climbing or erect herbs; tubers large, globose, cylindrical or pyriform with white, yellow or purple flesh; stems twining to the right, usually acutely 4-winged, sometimes only angular, usually with broad based prickles; bulbils numerous; leaves usually opposite, sometimes altérnate, ovate to cordate, hastate or subcordate at base with acute or rounded lobes, 5-nerved; petioles stout, 6-10 cm long, often winged; male spikes on slender, long, leafless branches in axillary pendulous panicles; flowers crowded or scattered, very variable in size, green or purple; sepals small, ovate, fleshy; petals narrower; stamens 6, inserted at the base of perianth, anthers minute, globose, filaments incurved, much shorter than perianth; pistillode various or absent; female spikes solitary or fascicled, pendulous; perianth as in males; ovary 3-celled, ovules-2, superposed in each locule, styles-3, very short, stigmas entire, bifid or recurved; capsules reddish brown when dry, broader than long, obcordate, broadly winged, coriaceous; seeds orbicular, winged all round.