Clerodendrum splendens

Clerodendrum splendens G. Don, Edinburgh Philos. J. 11: 349. 1824.

Climber or sarmentose (plants with long slender stolons), shrub, up to 5 m high or a densely branched shrub; main branches long and flexuous; branchlets shortly pubescent or minutely puberulous, quadrangular. Leaves opposite, simple; petiole 0.3-4 cm long, the basal part persistent and sometimes +/- spinescent; leaf blade 1.7-16 cm x 1.5-10.5 cm, ovate-oblong to broadly ovate to suborbicular, base cordate, truncate or rounded, margin entire or undulate, apex acute or shortly acuminate, dark green above and paler or greyish-green beneath, abaxial surface minutely glandular punctate and with prominent nerves, nerves pubescent. Inflorescences showy, many-flowered, axillary and terminal corymbose cymes. Peduncles stout, quadrangular, up to 9 cm long; pedicels 3-12 mm long. Flowers ca. 3 cm long (including stamens) and ca. 2.5 cm across, slightly zygomorphic, bisexual, hypogynous, scarlet or orange- red. Calyx 7-9 mm long, puberulent outside; tube 3-4 mm long; lobes 5, 4-5 mm long, ovate-triangular, acute, reddish, accrescent in fruit. Corolla ca. 2 cm long, salverform, red to scarlet; tube narrow, slender, ca. 1.3 cm long; limb 5-lobed, slightly 2-lipped, upper lip of 2 and lower lip of 3 lobes, lobes 12-13 mm x 6-8 mm, broadly oblong or obovate, rounded with sessile glands beneath. Stamens 4 (rarely 5), inserted in corolla tube, much exserted; filaments ca. 1.6 cm long; anthers ca. 2-3 mm long, ovate or oblong, bithecous, thecae parallel, basifixed, longitudinal dehiscence. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary incompletely 4-locular, 1 ovule in each loculus attached near its top; style 2.5-3 cm long, filiform; stigma shortly bifid.

Fruit a drupe, ca. 1.5 cm long, ovoid -ellipsoid, smooth, black at maturity. (Fruit not observed)

Flowering and Fruiting: December to February
Common Names: Bleeding Heart Vine, Flaming Glory bower, Pagoda Flower