General description:- Herbs or woody climbers.

Leaves:- Alternate, entire, without stipules (exstipulate).

Flowers:- Solitary or in axillary clusters, hermaphrodite, flowers irregular, having only one plane of sym­metry (zygomorphic), usually 3-petalled (3-merous). Perianth in 1 whorl, more or less brightly coloured and resembling a petal (petaloid), forming a tube, 1- or 3-lobed at the apex; stamens 6 or 12 in 1 or 2 whorls, free or  joined margin to margin (connate) with the stylar column. Ovary inferior, with 6 compartments (6-locular); placentation axillary; styles usually 6, free or connate to form a column with a 6-lobed stigma; ovules numerous.

Fruit:- A capsule.

Genus:- ARISTOLOCHIA

General description:- Perennial herbs or woody climbers.

Flowers:- Axillary. Perianth zygomorphic, deciduous, the base swollen (utricle), the upper part narrower, more or less cylindrical (tube), with single, entire lobe (limb), rarely absent or 3-lobed. Stamens usually 6, in 1 whorl, connate with stylar column.

Fruit:- A capsule when a ripe splits along the lines of junction of the carpels, i.e. along the septa (septicidal).

Key features:-
1) Perianth zygomorphic, with long tube, deciduous.
2) Flowers axillary.