Mussaenda elegans Schumach. & Thonn.

Shrub, scandent shrub or climber 1.5–10.5 m. tall; branches hispid or pubescent, becoming glabrous with age; whitish lenticels apparent.. Leaf-blades oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic to round, 3–14.3(–16) cm. long, 2–7.8 cm. wide, apex acuminate, base rounded or cuneate, with 7–15 pairs of lateral nerves, sparsely pubescent above and beneath, with denser pubescence on nerves beneath, occasionally entirely glabrous; petioles 0.3–6 cm. long; stipules deeply bilobed or with 2 separate subulate or linear lobes, 4–12 mm. long, up to 1 mm. wide, hairy outside, persistent.. Flowers heterostylous, in panicles with 2–3 peduncles 0–5 cm. long, each bearing 2–4 flowers; pedicels 0–1.2(–1.8) cm. long; bracts and: bracteoles simple, linear, up to 7 mm. long.. Calyx with short adpressed hairs or long (up to 3 mm.) patent hairs; tube cylindrical, 4–8 mm. long, 1.5–3 mm. wide; limb 0–1.5 mm. long; lobes linear or occasionally slightly spathulate, (4–)8–20 mm. long, 0.5–2(–3) mm. wide, occasionally tending to produce an expanded, dull red limb (noted in specimens from N. Nigeria, Bauchi Plateau, and Liberia).. Corolla greenish yellow or yellowish orange outside with the lobes pink to orange or bright red above, salver-shaped; tube 1.6–4 cm. long, 2–7 mm. wide at top, 1–2 mm. wide at base, covered with short adpressed hairs or long patent hairs outside, with flattened yellow hairs at the throat and extending to the base of the anthers within; lobes strongly reduplicate in bud, ± round, 1.1–3.5(–4.3) cm. long, 0.8–2.5 cm. wide, the inner portion connate for 3.3–18 mm., apex rounded or acuminate, midrib produced to form a low ridge, glabrous or glabrescent below and papillose with a few hairs a short distance along the midrib above.. Distance from the throat to the top of the anthers 4.5–12 mm. in long-styled flowers and 0–5 mm. in short-styled flowers.. Style 1.9–2.7 cm. long in long-styled flowers and 0.6–1.3 cm. long in short-styled flowers; arms 0–1.6 mm. long; stigma included; lobes 2.2–5 mm. long.. Fruit green with whitish to pale green flecks, ellipsoidal, 1.1–2.4 cm. long, 0.7–1 cm. wide, usually sparsely hairy but sometimes glabrous, calyx persistent or rarely caducous.. Seeds yellowish brown to dark reddish brown, flattened and somewhat variable in outline, 0.6–0.7 mm. long and usually slightly narrower, clearly reticulate.

A tropical plant. It needs light. It grows in secondary and savannah forest in West and Central Africa. It can be in palm groves.

The flowers are cooked and used as a tea drink substitute.