Scandent shrubs or climbers, rarely prostrate or erect, sometimes fleshy
Leaves simple, entire or lobed, sometimes falling before flowering
Inflorescences: axillary cymes, rarely flowers solitary in female
Male flowers: sepals 6 or 9, in 2 or 3 whorls, outer ones smaller, often pilose; petals 6, entire or bifid, concave or involute around stamens; stamens 6 or 9, free; anthers with a transverse dehiscence
Female flowers similar to male; staminodes 6 or 0; carpels (3)4-6, ± ovoid; ovule solitary; style cylindrical, erect or recurved, or stigmas sessile and recurved
Drupe obovate or subspherical-compressed, with persistent style or stigma; endocarp bony, horseshoe-shaped, transversely ridged; condyle ± circular, septum usually perforated
Seed curved; endosperm present as a thin layer, not ruminate
x = 13 (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Cocculus DC.
Candolle: 515 (1817) name conserved
Candolle: 96 (1824)
Miers: 43 (1851)
Bentham: 36 (1862)
Miers: 249, t. 124 (1871)
Baillon: 33 (1872) in part
Prantl: 84 (1891)
Diels: 227 (1910)
Troupin: 10 (1956)
Troupin: 163 (1960)
Troupin: 221 (1962)
Friedrich-Holzhammer: 4 (1968)
Troupin & Gonçalves: 16 (1973)
Benvenuto: 35 (1974)
Kessler: 417 (1993)
Thulin: 26 (1993)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 10, tropical to temperate North America, Africa, Socotra and Asia to Australia
Southern Africa: Species 1: Cocculus hirsutus (L.) Diels, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal
References:
BAILLON, H.E. 1872. Ménispermacées, Berbéridacées. Histoire des plantes 3. Hachette & Co., Paris
BENTHAM, G. 1862. Menispermaceae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
BENVENUTO, E. 1974. Adumbratio florae aethiopicae. 26. Menispermaceae. Webbia 29
CANDOLLE, A.-P. DE. 1817. Menispermeae. Regni vegetabilis systema naturale 1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
CANDOLLE, A.-P. DE. 1824. Menispermaceae. Prodromus 1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
DIELS, L. 1910. Menispermaceae. Das Pflanzenreich IV. 94 (Heft 46)
FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M. 1968. Menispermaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 38
KESSLER, P.J.A. 1993. Menispermaceae. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
MIERS, J. 1851. A few remarks on the Menispermaceae. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Ser. 2, Vol. 7
MIERS, J. 1871. A complete monograph of the Menispermaceae. Contributions to Botany 3(1). Williams & Norgate, London
PRANTL, K. 1891. Menispermaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,2
THULIN, M. 1993. Menispermaceae. Flora of Somalia 1
TROUPIN, G. 1956. Flora of tropical East Africa. Menispermaceae
TROUPIN, G. 1960. Menispermaceae. Flora zambesiaca 1
TROUPIN, G. 1962. Monographie des Menispermaceae africaines. Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, Classe des sciences naturelles et médicales mémoires 13
TROUPIN, G. & GONÇALVES, M.L. 1973. Menispermaceae. Flora de Moçambique 7
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