General description:- Herbs, often climbing by means of tendrils.
Flowers:- Unisexual. Calyx deeply 5(-6)-lobed; corolla deeply 5(-6)-lobed. Stamens 5, sometimes 3 (owing to 4 being united (connate) in pairs); filaments sometimes all connate; anthers with 1 theca, free or coherent. Ovary inferior, unilocular but often more or less divided by the 2-5 placentae; style usually 1, with 3, usually divided stigmas. Ovules 1 to many.
Fruit:- Usually fleshy and not splitting open to release their seeds (indehiscent).
BRYONIA
General description:- All flowers bisexual or with male and female flowers on the same plant (monoecious) or the male and female flowers on different plants (dioecious). Perennial with stiff bristly hairs or covered with small nipple-like projections (hispid-papillose) herbs with tuberous roots.
Stems:- Climbing by means of unbranched tendrils.
Flowers:- Greenish-white, in axillary, racemose panicles or subumbellate fascicles; calyx shortly bell-shaped (campanulate), 5-dentate; corolla almost rotate, deeply 5-fid. Stamens 3. Female flowers with 3-5, often almost obsolete staminodes.
Fruit:- Seeds few.
Key features:-
1) Stamens 3.
2) Calyx-tube without a horizontal scale near the base.
3) Flowers greenish-white; male flowers in racemes.
4) Fruit 6-10 mm.
ECHALLIUM
General description:- All flowers bisexual or with male and female flowers on the same plant (monoecious). Perennial hispid herb with a tuberous root.
Stems:- Procumbent, without tendrils. Calyx shortly bell-shaped (campanulate), 5-fid; corolla almost rotate, 5-fid. Male flowers in axillary racemes; stamens 3. Female flowers solitary, axillary; staminodes 5, 4 connate in pairs. Seeds numerous.
Key features:-
1) Tendrils absent.
2) Fruit explosive.