Clerodendrum indicum

This plant is a shrub native from the Indian subcontinent through Southeast Asia to southern China and Sumatra. Its mostly unbranched stems are hollow. Narrow, lance-shaped leaves grow in whorls of three to five, or sometimes in opposite pairs, and attach with little or no leaf stalk. Branching clusters at the stem tips carry long, curved tubular flowers that hang downward. The white corolla becomes cream-colored, with spreading lobes and long projecting stamens; the style extends still farther. Fleshy fruits ripen dark blue within an enlarged crimson calyx and may have two to four lobes. The plant spreads through suckers and self-seeding and is cultivated as an ornamental. Photographed in Florida.