Plant Name

Scientific Name: Clerodendrum indicum

Synonym: Siphonanthus indicus

Common Names: Turk's Turban, Turk's Turbin, Tubeflower

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial, Evergreen

Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub, Subshrub

Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized ornamental garden plant is native to China, India, and Southeast Asia.

Flower Color: White to cream

Height: 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 m) tall

Description: The flowers are in large, leafy, chandelier-like, up to 18 inch (45 cm) tall, panicle-like inflorescences at the branch tips. The individual flowers are white, tubular, drooping, 4 inches (10 cm) long, and have 5 round-tipped lobes, long, reddish stamens, and an even longer style. The flowers are followed by a cluster of 2 to 4 round, leathery, shiny, green ripening to dark blue fruits enclosed by a shiny, red, pitted, 5-pointed starlike calyx. The light green calyx at the base of the flowers enlarges and turns red as the fruit develops. From a distance, the fruiting clusters look like red flowers. The leaves are green, hairless, sessile, smooth-edged, lanceolate in shape, and opposite or whorled with 3 to 5 leaves per node. The plants are tall, narrow, and ungainly-looking with just a few slender, arching or leaning branches.

Here in Hawaii, Turk's Turban grows in disturbed areas and along roadsides in wet to mesic (moderately wet) areas at lower elevations.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Lamiales
Family: Verbenaceae – Verbena family
Genus: Clerodendrum L. – glorybower
Species: Clerodendrum indicum (L.) Kuntze – turk's turbin