Caustic Vine

Members of the genus Sarcostemma are known as climbing milkweeds or caustic bushes. They are found across Africa and tropical Asia, in Australia, and in parts of North America. 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.

Sarcostemma viminale is a shrub or climber, 0.3-5 m high. Flowers are white/cream-yellow-green. It grows on sand, gravel, skeletal soils, sandstone, limestone, laterite, rock outcrops and slopes.