Lianas, the branchlets terete, with conspicuous interpetiolar glandular fields; pseudostipules triangular to ovate, short, acute. Leaves 3-foliolate; terminal leaflet often replaced by a simple tendril. Inflorescence a racemose panicle, contracted, narrowly bracteate, axillary on leafless branchets. Calyx cupular, truncate, 5-denticulate, stellate- or dendroid-pubescent; corolla light magenta, ± tubular-campanulate, dendroid-puberulous outside. Anthers glabrous, the thecae straight, divaricate. Ovary flattened-ovoid, densely lepidote; ovules 6-8-seriate in each locule; disk cupular-pulvinate. Fruit a woody capsule, elliptic, the valves parallel to the septum, ± smooth or with slightly elevated glandular zones, the midline inconspicuous. Seeds thin, 2-winged, the hyaline-membranous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.
Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay; 4 species, 1 in Venezuela.
Xylophragma seemannianum (Kuntze) Sandwith, Kew Bull. 1953: 469. 1954. -Saldanhaea seemanniana Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 480. 1891.
Liana with stellate pubescence. Deciduous or semideciduous forests, 100-500 m; Delta Amacuro (Serranía de Imataca), northern Bolívar, northern Amazonas. Widespread elsewhere in Venezuela; Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Guyana, Brazil (Roraima), Bolivia. Fig. 425.