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Eleutherostemon Herzog, Meded. Rijksherb. Leiden 27: 22. 1915, non Klotzsch (1838).  Type:  Eleutherostemon racemosum Herzog [=Diogenesia racemosa (Herzog) Sleumer].

     Small shrubs, usually epiphytic, with slender, often elongate and pendent branches, occasionally climbing.  Leaves alternate, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, margin entire, 3-5-plinerved, short-petiolate;  bud scales generally distinct (=Sleumer's pseudostipule).  Inflorescences axillary, in few- to many-flowered fascicles or racemes, very rarely reduced to a solitary flower;  pedicel slender, bibracteolate about midway along pedicel.  Flowers 4-5-merous, without odor;  aestivation valvate;  calyx continuous with pedicel;  hypanthium campanulate, rounded at base, truncate at apex, smooth or indistinctly 5-ribbed;  limb and lobes short, suberect;  corolla cylindric, urceolate or campanulate, shortly lobed to -partite halfway;  stamen 4, 5, 6, 8 or 10, equal in length, ± as long as or slightly shorter than corolla;  filaments distinct, longer or shorter than anthers, lacking spurs, pubescent;  anthers oblong, lacking disintegration tissue;  thecae smooth or faintly granular;  tubules as long as or longer than the thecae, dehiscing by an introrse oval pore or cleft;  pollen lacking viscin threads;  nectariferous disc usually prominent, thick-annular, entire or crenulate, rarely conical;  ovary inferior;  style slender, equalling the corolla in length or long-exserted;  stigma truncate.  Fruit a juicy berry, subglobose, when immature pericarp thin and brittle, when mature subcoriaceous, usually purple to blue-black;  seeds numerous, the embryo green.

    A genus of  13 species ranging from Venezuela to northern Bolivia.

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