PLANT: Woody vines or rarely shrubs or small trees; dioecious. LEAVES: simple, entire or sometimes 3-5 lobed, thickened, semi-evergreen, lanceolate to ovate or deltoid, often apically mucronate, the base oblique to cordate; pubescent with 1-2-celled hairs; blades mostly longer than petioles. INFLORESCENCE: of axillary racemes, panicles, cymes or thyrses, or the pistillate flowers rarely solitary. FLOWERS: small; sepals 6, in 2 series, the inner larger than the outer, sparsely to densely pubescent, the margins fimbriate to erose; petals 6, in 2 series, shorter than the inner sepals, thin to fleshy, each embracing a stamen or staminodium; stamens 6 in staminate flowers, usually nodding inward; staminodia 6 in pistillate flowers, linear; anthers completely or incompletely 4-celled; pistils 6; ovules 2 per carpel but one abortive; style short, pointed; stigma subulate, terete, grooved along the upper surface. FRUIT: red to dark purple, globular drupes, 1-6 per flower, glabrous, short-stipitate; endocarp coiled, sculptured, laterally compressed. SEED: coiled, crescent-shaped. NOTES: Ca 12 spp. worldwide, mostly tropical and subtropical. (Diminutive of Latin coccus = berry). REFERENCES: Laferriere, Joseph E. 1994. Menispermaceae. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27, 237.