The Black Pagoda Lipstick Plant (*Aeschynanthus longicaulis*) is a beautiful hanging plant, highly prized for its attractive foliage and unique flowers. Its leaves are dark green with purple or black spots and a reddish-brown shade on the underside. The plant has slender, long, trailing stems, making it look stunning in hanging baskets. Its flowers are small, tube-like, and bright red in color, which looks like lipstick. It thrives in partial shade, humidity, and well-draining soil. Protect it from harsh sunlight, as this can damage its leaves.
Scientific Name: Aeschynanthus longicaulis
Some Basic Information about Aeschynanthus longicaulis (Black Pagoda Lipstick Plant) - Indoor hanging plant
Habit: Perennial, evergreen, epiphytic or trailing herb, usually 30–100 cm in length; forms cascading stems that hang gracefully from baskets or grow along tree branches in its natural habitat
Root: Adventitious, fibrous roots arising from stem nodes and the plant base; roots aid in anchorage on tree bark and absorption of moisture and nutrients from organic debris
Stem: Trailing, slender, succulent to semi-woody, branched, green to reddish-brown, flexible and pendulous; stems become slightly woody with age and may root at nodes under humid conditions
Leaf: Opposite, petiolate, simple, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 5–12 cm long; margin entire, exstipulate, fleshy and glossy; upper surface dark green with distinctive maroon, purple, or black reticulate markings, while the lower surface is purplish-violet
Inflorescence: Terminal or axillary cymes, usually bearing a few flowers clustered near the ends of stems
Flower: Bracteate, complete, zygomorphic, bisexual, hypogynous; flowers tubular, elongated, yellowish-green to cream with brown or maroon markings, emerging from dark-colored calyces; pollinated mainly by birds and insects
Calyx: Sepals 5, gamosepalous at the base, persistent, dark purple to maroon, tubular, with valvate aestivation
Corolla: Petals 5, gamopetalous, forming a long tubular bilabiate corolla; lobes unequal, brightly colored, with imbricate aestivation
Androecium: Stamens 4, epipetalous, didynamous (two long and two short), inserted on the corolla tube; anthers dithecous, dehiscing longitudinally; a rudimentary fifth stamen (staminode) may be present
Gynoecium: Ovary superior, bicarpellary, syncarpous, unilocular with parietal placentation; style single and elongated; stigma bifid
Fruit: Capsule, long, slender, linear, dehiscent, containing numerous small seeds with hair-like appendages aiding in dispersal
Floral Formula: Br % ⚥ K(5) C(5) A4 G̲(2)
Systematic Position
Division – Angiospermae
Class – Dicotyledonae
Order – Lamiales
Family – Gesneriaceae
Genus – Aeschynanthus
Species – longicaulis
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