Family: Cucurbitaceae

Habit: Vines or lianas.

Branch: Tendrils usually present, simple or branched, next to petiole.

Leaves: Leaves simple or palmately compound, alternate, the base usually cordate, the lamina often with variable lobing on a plant, the base often cordate, often pubescent, sometimes asperous or scabrous.

Inflorescence: Inflorescence axillary, the pistillate and staminate flowers often in separate inflorescences in one or different axils.

Flowers: Flowers unisexual, plants monoecious or dioecious; hypanthium present; calyx and corolla usually 5-merous; stamens usually 5 but sometimes reduced to 3, sometimes the anthers fused into one structure; ovary inferior, carpels usually 3, sometimes 1-2, placentation axile or parietal, the style 1.

Fruit: Fruit a dry capsule or juicy berry with coriacous pericarp, smooth, tuberculate, or somewhat spinose.

Seeds: Seeds one to numerous per fruit, sometimes corky or winged.