However, it is cultivated as an ornamental houseplant and as such has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Growing to 50 cm (20 in) tall and broad, its slim cylindrical stems are at first erect, becoming pendent with short straight branches arranged in whorls.

It has been shown that viviparity exists in this species, that is, the seed can germinate very early, while it is still in the fruit attached to the mother plant.

These plants have low nutrient requirements in nature, so balanced commercial fertilizers should be diluted to half the recommended concentration on the label.

Propagation is done from cuttings or plants, and from the wild from fruits, whose seeds are carried by the animals that ate them.

The main threat to the species is the rapid decline of the primary tropical forest (destruction and fragmentation of habitats, deforestation, etc.).