The stems of the Odontophorus marlothii plant may be either covered among leaves and other plant parts, or internodes may become long and exposed, forming part of side-shoots as in this plant growing in the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden.

The bare internodes are dark, hard and woody, the leaf-pairs decussate on the stems. The spreading, decumbent branches emerge after the young plant’s first flowering (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 1998; iNaturalist).