Mussaenda erythrophylla Schumach. & Thonn.

Shrub, scandent shrub or climber, 1.5–8 m. tall; branches ± densely covered with patent or crisped, straw-coloured to reddish hairs; lenticels sometimes visible as small whitish streaks.. Leaf-blades elliptic to round, 2.5–18 cm. long, 1.7–11 cm. wide, apex acute or more usually acuminate, base rounded, ± cordate or cuneate, with 7–10 pairs of lateral nerves, hairy on both surfaces, with denser, often red hairs on the nerves beneath; petioles 0.3–5 cm. long; stipules bilobed for ± 1/3 of their length, 5–12 mm. long, 2.5–8 mm. wide at base, hairy outside, usually reflexed, persistent.. Flowers heterostylous, in usually dense, compressed panicles; peduncles 0.5–2.7(–8) cm. long; secondary peduncles present or suppressed; pedicels 0–10 mm. long; 2–6 foliaceous calyx-lobes present on each inflorescence; bracts and bracteoles 3–5-lobed, 1–1.5 cm. long, glabrous inside.. Calyx-tube obovoid, 3–5 mm. long, densely covered in spreading hairs; lobes green or red, lanceolate, (0.3–)0.8–1.6(–2.4) mm. long, 1.2–3(–5) mm. wide, covered with long red hairs outside and shorter pale hairs inside, caducous; foliaceous lobes bright red, elliptic to round, 3–11 cm. long, 2–9.4 cm. wide, acute at apex, rounded at base, pubescent on both sides; stipe 0.3–1 cm. long.. Corolla with tube greenish to reddish outside and lobes white to yellow or pinky above; tube 1.5–2.8 mm. long, 3–5 mm. wide at top, 1.5–3 mm. wide at base, covered with red spreading hairs outside, with yellow flattened hairs at the throat and extending below the anthers inside; lobes round, (3.5–)5–12 mm. long, 5–11 mm. wide, apex rounded or apiculate, the inner portion connate for (2–)2.5–5 mm., covered with red spreading hairs below, above ± glabrous or with short whitish hairs becoming denser towards the centre, then with a ring of long dark red hairs surrounding the flattened yellow throat hairs.. Distance from the throat to the top of anthers 5.5–8.5 mm. in long-styled flowers and 1–5 mm. in short-styled flowers.. Style 1.4–2.4 cm. in long-styled flowers, 0.7–1 cm. in short-styled flowers; arms 0–1.5 mm; stigma included or partly exserted; lobes 2.6–4.2 mm. long.. Fruit yellowish, ellipsoid, 1–2.4 cm. long, 0.7–1.4 cm. wide, covered in spreading brown to red hairs; calyx-lobes eventually caducous.. Seeds straw-coloured to blackish, ± square or oblong in outline, 0.6 mm. long, ± flattened, reticulate, sometimes with a few short, fine hairs.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in light gaps in the forest. In Nigeria it is recorded at 600 and 1,500 m above sea level.