Clerodendrum indicum
(Turk's turban)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Clerodendrum indicum (L.) Kuntze

Preferred Common Name

• Turk's turban

Other Scientific Names

• Clerodendrum siphonanthus R. Br.
• Clerodendrum longicolle G. Meyer
• Clerodendrum mite (L.) Vatke
• Ovieda mitis L.
• Siphonanthus indica L.

International Common Names

• English: glory bower; Indian glory bower; skyrocket; tube-flower; Turk's-turban
• Chinese: chang guan da qing; chang guan jia mo li

Local Common Names

• India: bharangi; bhargi; hunjika; kavalai
• Indonesia: genje; ringgo dipo; sekar petak
• Malaysia: ganja ganja; penatoh
• Myanmar: ngayan-padu
• Thailand: leng chon tai; phayaa raak dieo; thao yaai mom

EPPO code

• CLZIN (Clerodendrum indicum)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Lamiales
•                         Family: Lamiaceae
•                             Genus: Clerodendrum
•                                 Species: Clerodendrum indicum

Most members of the Lamiaceae genus Clerodendrum are native to the Old World tropics, but many have been cultivated and introduced as ornamentals elsewhere. The genus consists of approximately 400 species (Armitage, 2001; Acevedo-Rodriguez, 1996), although this number has now been reported to be closer to 180, as much taxonomic confusion in the past has resulted in thousands of misnamed and synonymous specimens (Wearn and Mabberly, 2011). For example, Burman spelled the genus as Clerodendron in 1737 instead of Linnaeus’ correct 1753 spelling Clerodendrum, which resulted in both spellings occurring in the literature (Rueda, 1993). The genus name Clerodendrum is derived from the Greek words ‘kleros’, meaning ‘chance’, ‘lot’, or ‘fate’, and ‘dendron’, meaning ‘tree’, likely referring to the numerous and sometimes doubtful medicinal qualities that have been associated with these shrubs, trees and climbers (Stearn, 1992; Rueda, 1993; Armitage, 2001; Quattrocchi, 2012).

The species C. indicum was originally named Siphonanthus indica by Linneaus in 1753, and changed to its current name in 1891 by Kuntze. Its name refers to its perceived origin of India (Stearn, 1992).

Shrub, 1.5-3 m tall, laxly branched. Leaves verticillate, sessile, 3-5 in each whorl, narrowly lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 1-2.5 cm broad, entire, acute. Cymes verticillately arranged to form a terminal, 20-25 cm long panicle. Flowers white, c. 1.5 cm across; bracts 5-10 mm long, reddish when young, linear to linear-lanceolate; pedicels up to 1.5 cm long. Calyx-lobes 6-7 mm long, ovate-lanceolate. Corolla-tube 8-10 mm long, glabrous; lobes ovate-oblong, 10-12 mm long, obtuse. Drupe c. 1 cm in diameter, bluish-black, enclosed by enlarged red coloured calyx [Flora of Pakistan, 2014].

In Myanmar and the eastern Caribbean, the species occurs as a shrub (Kress et al., 2003; Broome et al., 2007).

C. indicum has been so widely cultivated across Malesia that its native distribution within Asia is now unclear (Wearn and Mabberly, 2011), but it is considered to be native to India and Nepal, eastward to Myanmar, southern China, Indo-China, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia (Valkenburg and Bunyapraphatsara, 2001). In the Philippines and Singapore, it is reported only as a cultivated species (Chong et al., 2009; Pelser et al., 2014).

Date of introduction to the Neotropics is uncertain, but in the West Indies it was reported (as syn. C. siphonanthus) as naturalized in St. Kitts, Trinidad, and Guiana by 1864 (Grisebach, 1864). The species was present in Martinique by 1867, Guadeloupe by 1892, St. Vincent by 1947, and Dominica by 1964 (Smithsonian Herbarium Collections). It was not included in Bello’s work on Puerto Rico (Bello Espinosa, 1881; Bello, 1883), but in 1914 Standley reported that it had escaped and become established in the West Indies (Standley, 1914). The species was included (as syn. Siphonanthusindicus) in Volume 6 of Britton and Wilson’s survey of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Britton and Wilson, 1926), where it was reported to be naturalized in St. Croix after being planted as an ornamental, and reportedly growing in the Puerto Rico Federal Experiment Station in 1951 (Hume, 1951). It was reported (as syn. Siphonanthusindica) as a cultivated species in Bermuda in 1918 (Britton, 1918). In the continental USA, C. indicum was present in the state of Louisiana by 1884 and Mississippi by 1887 (Standley, 1914).

Soil drainage

• free

Vector Transmission (biotic)

Seeds of Clerodendrum are encased in shiny purple berries which may be dispersed by birds and other animals (Rueda, 1993). Additionally, it is a suckering plant and can be spread by movement of humans and animals who may transport rhizome fragments.

Accidental Introduction

C. indicum is known to have escaped cultivation and become naturalized in parts of the West Indies (Britton and Wilson, 1926).

Intentional Introduction

The species has been widely introduced outside of its native range for use as an ornamental (Quattrocchi, 2012).

C. indicum is not recorded to have made significant negative economic or environmental impacts in the places where it has been introduced; rather it is more of a common weed in, for example, parts of the United States including Texas, where the species is “not showing aggressively invasive tendencies, or perhaps incipiently invasive” (Nesom, 2009).

• Has a broad native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Tolerant of shade
• Highly mobile locally
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Fast growing
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year
• Reproduces asexually

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

C. indicum has been cultivated as an ornamental (USDA-ARS, 2014), both within and outside of its native range. The species also has a history of medicinal use in Pakistan, India, China, Java and Myanmar (Watt, 1883; Khare, 2007; Quattrocchi, 2012; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2014; Flora of Pakistan, 2014). Among its many uses in Ayurvedic and traditional medicine, the plant is known to be used to treat asthma, coughs, fever, atrophy, consumption, skin problems such as pemphigus, herpes, scrofula, and rheumatism, and is used as a tonic (Watt, 1883; Khare, 2007; Quattrocchi, 2012; Duke, 2014). In Pakistan, the root is used in chest troubles, and the juice of the leaves mixed with butter fat is applied to cure herpetic eruptions, and in India, Pakistan, and Myanmar, a resin obtained from the plant is used for treating syphilitic rheumatism (Valkenburg and Bunyapraphatsara, 2001; Khare, 2007; Flora of Pakistan, 2014). In India and Java, the leaves of the species are dried and smoked like cigarettes to relieve asthma, and in New Caledonia, the leaves are used as a bitter tonic and vermifuge (Valkenburg and Bunyapraphatsara, 2001; Khare, 2007). The leaves are also reportedly eaten as a vegetable (Quattrocchi, 2012).