Description :

• Dioecious, rarely monoecious, scandent, prostrate or erect herbs, with thick roots
• Leaves entire, lobed or partite, sometimes palmately lobed, often with bract at base of petiole
• Tendrils simple or 0
• Male flowers solitary, fascicled or in racemes: calyx 5-lobed, tube funnel-shaped or cylindric, often elongate, sometimes pilose within, lobes small, ovate, linear or subulate; corolla 5-lobed, lobes ovate, linear, linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, sometimes glandular without; stamens 3, arising at middle or near base of calyx tube, filaments free, terete, ± as long as or longer than anthers, sometimes hairy at base, anthers slightly cohering, with one 1-thecous and others 2-thecous, often sparsely glandular; pistil rudimentary
• Female flowers solitary: calyx and corolla as in male; staminodes 3, setiform or long-linear; ovary ovoid or elliptic or oblong, with 3 placentas and many ovules, style long, linear, stigma 3-lobed, dilated or 2 large, flat lobes, each bilobed to appear 4-lobed
• Fruit ovoid, subglobose or oblong, fleshy, few-seeded
• Seeds ellipsoid, sometimes compressed, smooth, with crustaceous testa; cotyledons elliptic
• x = 12

Nomenclature:

• Trochomeria Hook.f.
  • Hooker: 822 (1867)
  • Meeuse: 85 (1962)
  • Jeffrey: 456 (1978)
• Heterosicyos Hook.f.
  • Hooker: 822 (1867)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 8, Africa
• Southern Africa : Species 4, all regions, except Free State, Lesotho and Western Cape