Flora of New Zealand Series

Climbing or scrambling shrubs, sometimes with axillary stem spines, less commonly arborescent; stems not swollen at nodes. Lvs alternate, petiolate. Fls ⚥, rather small, usually in clusters of 3, each subtended by a large variously coloured bract. Pedicels adnate to midrib of bract. Perianth tubular, constricted at c. middle of tube, widened below, 5-ridged; limb short, usually 5-lobed with ridges of tube terminating at the apex of the lobes, cream, yellow or pink, persistent. Stamens (4)-8-(10), unequal, free, or connate at base, not filiform, included. Ovary stipitate; style short; stigma often irregularly lobed. Anthocarp 5-ribbed, not viscid, falling with the attached bract and not invested by it.

c. 15 spp., tropical S. America. Naturalised sp. 1.