Cyphostemma


Cyphostemma is a flowering plant genus in the family Vitaceae, with around 250 species distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. These species are caudiciform and used to belong to the genus Cissus. The genus name comes from Greek kyphos, meaning hump, and stemma, meaning garland.
Within the Vitaceae, Cyphostemma is most closely related to Cayratia and Tetrastigma. All species of Cyphostemma were once included in the genus Cissus but are now considered to be distinct.

Distribution

They originate from Northeast Africa to southern Arabia, in particular from Madagascar.

Selected species

There are about 260 species in the genus.