Succulent shrubby root-climbers, frequently epiphytic; stems phylloid and jointed, rooting adventitiously at the joints, the joints elongate, rather indefinitely winged, occasionally nearly terete or flattened, the areoles marginal on the wings, very inconspicuously puberulent to essentially naked, seldom with extremely few and inconspicuous spines. Leaves apparently wholly lacking. Flowers nocturnal, sessile, of mediocre size in our species, borne singly at the uppermost areoles, very broadly infundibuliform, the tube very broad and somewhat shorter than the seg-ments, bearing few to rather numerous broad fugacious bracts and conspicuous areoles armed with numerous slender subarachnoid bristles and hairs, the segments very numerous, the outer progressively shorter and less petaloid than the inner, spreading; stamens very numerous, the filaments shorter than the perianth, inserted at progressively deeper levels within the hypanthium; ovary cylindric, bearing crowded fugacious bracts and areoles armed with numerous persistent subarachnoid bristles and hairs; style filiform, somewhat longer than the stamens. Fruit a fleshy berry with persistent bristly areoles and numerous seeds.
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