Mats Thulin (1999) Cyphostemma in Flora of Somalia 2: 164-168
Plants erect or trailing perennial herbs, woody climbers, or succulent shrubs with thickened, sometimes sparsely branched, trunks, often glandular; rootstocks often tuberous; tendrils opposite the leaves or absent. Leaves usually digitately compound, with 3-9(-11) leaflets, occasionally simple or pedately divided. Inflorescences flattened cymes, leaf-opposed or axillary. Flowers 4-merous, usually bisexual; buds cylindric or flask-shaped, rounded and often inflated at the end, more or less constricted near the middle. Calyces entire or 4-lobed. Petals with hooded tips, becoming deflexed, deciduous; nectary discs of 4 separate glands, adnate to the ovaries; styles cylindric or cylindric-conic, stigmas minutely bifid or subentire. Fruits usually 1-seeded; seeds ovoid or ellipsoid, with a central dorsal ridge and 2 lateral crests, the sides sculptured or smooth.
Cyphostemma includes about 240 species and is native in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, and India. It is a difficult genus with some very variable species and others which are poorly known.