Description :

• Monoecious or dioecious, prostrate or scandent, often villous herbs
• Leaves lobed, rarely entire, toothed
• Tendrils unequally bifid, rarely simple
• Male flowers solitary or in racemes: calyx 5-lobed, tube gradually widening upwards or subcylindric, sometimes pilose outside and inside, with vibratile hairs, lobes linear, subulate, rarely sublanceolate; corolla 5-lobed, lobes obovate or oblong-elliptic, entire, sometimes glandular-hairy within and without; stamens 3, arising near base of calyx tube, filaments free, sometimes shorter than anthers, anthers cohering, with 1 anther 1-thecous and others 2-thecous, sometimes sagittate at base, thecae bent; pistil rudimentary
• Female flowers solitary: calyx and corolla as in male; staminodes 0 or 3, linear; ovary oblong or linear-oblong, with 3 placentas and many ovules, sometimes tomentose, style thick, fleshy, linear, stigma 3-lobed, fleshy
• Fruit ovoid or cylindric, fleshy, many-seeded
• Seeds obovate, smooth or sometimes tomentose with crustaceous testa
• x = 12 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

• Peponium Engl.
  • Engler: 318 (1897)
  • Meeuse: 91 (1962)
• Peponia Naud.
  • Naudin: 29 (1866) name illegitimate

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 20, Africa, Madagascar, Aldabra and Seychelles
• Southern Africa : Species 4, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern and Eastern Cape