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Clerodendrum thomsoniae Balf. f.

Synonym	:	Clerodendrum balfourianum Massart & al.
Family	:	Verbenaceae
Local name	:	English-  Bleeding heart Malayalam-  Kadalapoovu
Flowering and fruiting period	:	August-November
Distribution	:	Native of Tropical Africa
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Grown in gardens
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	Ornamental plant
Key botanical characters: High-climbing herbaceous or woody vine or liana, to 7 m long or more, rarely a low shrub 2-2.5 m tall; branchlets slender, greyish, obtusely tetragonal, glabrate; twigs slender, brown or purplish, densely puberulent; leafscars often large and circular, borne on prominent sterigmata corky. Leaves decussate-opposite; petioles slender, minutely puberulent with purplish hairs, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, apically short-acuminate, marginally entire; inflorescence axillary, cymose, abundant near the apex of the twigs; calyx pale yellowish-green, changing to cream-colour and then pure white during anthesis, fading to yellow or pink, or the calyx reddish, more or less pentagonal during anthesispuberulent, deeply 4-fid the lobes broadly ovate,apically acute or short-acuminate; corolla hypocrateriform, varying from deep rose, dark red, deep red, or bright red to cardinal red, scarlet, or crimson, its tube very slender, about lobes of the limb wide-spreading or reflexed stamens long-exserted; fruiting- calyx faded rose-colour; fruit drupaceous, glossy-black externally, with a brilliant red aril uniting the 4 pyrenes.