page_title: Lophospermum erubescens
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Lophospermum erubescens / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: English: First published image of Lophospermum erubescens (initially misidentified as L.&#160;scandens). Yellowing on the right of the image (source below) cleaned up.
context_page_description: Lophospermum erubescens, known as Mexican twist or creeping gloxinia, is a climbing or sprawling herbaceous perennial, native to the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains of Mexico, where it is found along forest margins or canyon walls. It climbs by means of twining leaf stalks. Wild plants have pink and white tubular flowers, although other colours are found in cultivation. It has been cultivated as an ornamental plant since at least 1830. Although not frost-hardy, it will survive if its base and roots are protected from freezing in the winter. It has escaped from cultivation and become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, including Hawaii and eastern Australia.
  Lophospermum erubescens has been confused with Lophospermum scandens, partly because the earliest illustration of L. erubescens was labelled as L. scandens. Among other differences, L. erubescens has a more climbing habit than L. scandens, with many twining leaf stalks; also the sepals are broader and joined at the base for only 2–3 mm rather than 7–11 mm.
context_section_description: The earliest illustration of Lophospermum erubescens appeared in 1830 in The British Flower Garden. The plant was at first identified as the already known Lophospermum scandens and labelled as such. David Don later realized that it was a new species, and corrected the error in a subsequent note in The British Flower Garden, describing the illustrated plant as a new species, L. erubescens. Don did not explain the origin of the specific epithet, but erubescens means reddening or blushing in Latin. Don's correction was not always noticed, with the result that the name L. scandens became associated with the illustration of L. erubescens, creating confusion between the two species.
  The distinction between the two species has not always been accepted. Don distinguished L. erubescens from L. scandens by features such as the former's more triangular leaves with shorter hairs, and broader, less sharply pointed sepals. Other differences are that L. erubescens has a more climbing habit than L. scandens, with many twining leaf stalks; the bases of the sepals are joined for only 2–3 mm (0.08–0.12 in) rather than 7–11 mm (0.3–0.4 in); and the folds (plicae) on the base of the inside of the flower tube bear hairs 1–2 mm (0.04–0.08 in) rather than less than 1 mm (0.04 in) long.
  Lophospermum erubescens has previously been placed in other genera now considered distinct but related; for example in Maurandya by Samuel Frederick Gray and in Asarina by Francis Whittier Pennell.
caption: Earliest illustration of Lophospermum erubescens
exif: {"Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2014:08:07 07:19:08", "Image ExifOffset": "17178", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "122", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "200", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "110", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "17026", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "736", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1208", "EXIF Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "EXIF XResolution": "72", "EXIF YResolution": "72", "EXIF ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014-08-06T14:30:45+01:00"}