any of various, usually climbing or trailing, plants of the genus Ceropegia, native to the Old World tropics and often cultivated as houseplants
Word origin
[‹ NL (Linnaeus) ‹ Gk kēro-cero- + NL -pegia, perh. ‹ Gk -pēgia, n. deriv. of pēgnýnai to stick in, fix in; perh. to be taken as “candle holder”; cf. Linnaeus' specificname candelabrum]