Vines , twining. Leaves palmately compound; leaflets 3-5, articulate at base of blade and at base of petiolule. Inflorescences racemose, pistillate flowers proximal to staminate flowers in each raceme. Flowers dimorphic: pistillate flowers larger and longer pediceled than staminate flowers; sepals mostly brownish to purplish. Staminate flowers: pistillodes present. Pistillate flowers: pistils (3-)-8(-15); placentation laminar; staminodes present. Fruits follicles, fleshy, dehiscent along adaxial suture. Seeds 100-several hundred. x = 16. Pistils in Akebia are incompletely closed distally (W. W. Payne and J. L. Seago 1968).
