Ecballium

Monoecious trailing herbs with woody rootstock and fleshy, scabrous stems. Leaves simple; tendrils absent. Male flowers in axillary racemes; female flowers solitary, sometimes co-axillary with males. Calyx and corolla deeply 5-lobed; hypanthium broadly bell-shaped; stamens inserted on hypanthium, anthers 3, all 2-locular, locules flexuose; disc absent. Female flowers lacking staminodes; stigmas 3, bifid; ovary with bristly hairs, ovules many. Fruit ellipsoid, bristly, juicy, dehiscing actively through ruptured attachment of pedicel; seeds many, smooth.