• Sarcostemma is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1810.

• Members of the genus are known generally as climbing milkweeds or caustic bushes..

• These plants are perennial flowering shrubs with trailing vines or lianas. They are often adapted to heat and/or desert conditions. Some have few or no leaves and photosynthesize in the tissues of the green stems.

• The soft stems are filled with a milky white latex that is poisonous and caustic in some species. The flowers have a ring of thick tissue at the base which extends into hollow spherical appendages within the flower corolla.