Trichosporum D. Don.

Shrubs or climbers, epiphytic or epipetric, not rhizomatous. Stems often pendent, branched or unbranched. Leaves usually many, along stem, opposite, sometimes whorled, equal to subequal in a pair; leaf blade glabrous, rarely puberulent or pubescent, base cuneate to rounded or attenuate. Inflorescences umbel-like, lax or sometimes dense, axillary or pseudoterminal, 1-10-flowered cymes; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from base to 5-lobed; segments equal, rarely unequal. Corolla red to orange, seldom greenish, yellow, or white, zygomorphic, inside sparsely puberulent, sparsely glandular puberulent, glabrous, or with a hair ring; tube narrowly tubular to funnelform-tubular, often curved, not swollen, much longer than limb, 0.4-1.5 cm in diam.; limb indistinctly or distinctly 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed; usually equalling, occasionally to 1/2 X length of abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes equal or subequal, apex rounded to acute. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube near or above middle, usually exserted; anthers basifixed, usually coherent in pairs at apex, thecae parallel, not confluent, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting; staminode 1 or absent, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary linear, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigma 1, terminal, capitate to depressed-globose, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, linear, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2 or 4, straight, not twisted. Seeds with 1(or 2-50) hairlike appendages, opposite end with 1 hairlike appendage, seldom 1 linear appendage at each end.

About 140 species: Asia, Pacific Islands; 34 species in China.

The flowers of Aeschynanthus are strongly prontandrous. Consequently, the length of filaments and pistil will vary greatly during the duration of an individual flower. The measurements included in this treatment do not always reflect this variability, and diagnostic use of these characters should be avoided.