Aeschynanthus pulcher
The classic lipstick plant: a trailing epiphytic gesneriad with paired fleshy leaves and bright red tubular flowers that emerge from dark maroon calyces. In the wild it grows on trees and mossy rocks in forest from the lowlands to lower-montane cloud forest in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Java. Many records, including the Malaysian ones, come from around 1,000–1,500 m, so it enjoys warm days and mild nights more than steamy lowland heat.
Where it grows wild
It is an epiphyte or climber on trunks and branches and sometimes on wet mossy rocks. It grows in lowland and hill dipterocarp forest, peat-swamp and riverine forest, and especially in submontane and montane forest such as Fraser's Hill, the Cameron Highlands and Bukit Baka. Labels mention mossy montane forest, stream sides and plants growing on trees.
It is recorded from near sea level to about 1,800 m. The 6 records with elevations in our native set range from 26 to 1,460 m, median 1,280 m. The wider herbarium set includes many collections at 1,000–1,500 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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More Aeschynanthus
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.