Nekemias Raf., Sylva Tellur. 87. 1838.

Ampelopsis Michx., pro parte

Woody climbers.

Branchlets with prominent lenticels. Pith white, continuous through nodes. Tendrils leaf-opposed, mostly bifurcate to sometimes trifurcate, and lacking adhesive discs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, pinnately to ternately bipinnately or sometimes tripinnately compound. Inflorescences bifurcately compound cymes, long peduncled, leaf-opposite. Flowers pedicellate, mostly bisexual; calyx saucer-like; corolla of 5 thick petals; stamens 5, opposite to petals; disc adnate to the base of the ovary; ovary 2-locular, style short, conical, stigma rounded. Fruit a berry, globose or subglobose, purple, blue or black, 1-4 seeded. Seeds obovoid.

Type species.

Nekemias bipinnata (Michx.) Raf. [= Nekemias arborea (L.) J. Wen & Boggan].

Nine species with eight occurring in warm temperate to tropical areas of eastern and southeastern Asia (Suessenguth 1940; Galet 1967; Chen et al. 2007), and one species distributed in eastern North America extending to the Caribbean (Brizicky 1965). This intercontinental disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and eastern North America represent a classical biogeographic pattern of the Northern Hemisphere (Wen 1999; Wen et al. 2010).

Below we provide a taxonomic synopsis for the genus.