Annual or perennial climbing herbs, dioecious or monoecious; tendrils 2-3-fid or unbranched. Leaves entire or denticulate, palmately 3-5 (-9)-lobed, cordate at base. Flowers white; male racemose, rarely solitary, often bracteate; female solitary. Clayx-tube oblong-cylindrical, expanded above, 5-lobed, lobes lanceolate, entire or serrate. Corolla deeply 5-lobed, rotate, lobes oblong or lanceolate, fimbriate. Stamens 3, inserted on the calyx tube, filaments short, anthers syngenesious, rarely free; staminodes absent. Style slender, stigmas 3, pistillodes 3, filiform. Ovary oblong-ovoid, fusiform, globose, ovules many, horizontal, or semipendulous. Fruit oblong, ovoid-globose or fusiform, large, indehiscent, usually glabrous and smooth, many seeded. Seeds ellipsoid or oblong, packed in pulp.