Cissus

a genus of plants of the family Vitaceae. The plants include tendril-climbing vines, erect shrubs, perennial herbs, and cauline succulents. The alternate leaves are entire or palmately lobed. The unattractive flowers are bisexual and tetramerous; they are in cymose inflorescences. The fruit is a berry.

There are more than 350 species, distributed in the tropics and, less commonly, subtropics of both hemispheres. Some species are cultivated as ornamentals. A particularly popular houseplant is C. antarctica, which is native to the subtropics of Australia. A number of tropical African vines with succulent stems and tendrils are cultivated in greenhouses, including C. discolor of Southeast Asia and the succulents C. juttae, C. bainesii, and C. crameriana from Southwest Africa. Their erect succulent stems are 3–4 m high and 1 m in diameter. Also raised in greenhouses are the vines C. quadrangularis and C. cactiformis, also from tropical Africa.