South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Think Clerodendrum for flowers, butterflies, and history
I thought plants in the genus Clerodendrum would make an interesting article because they offer us some very familiar garden plants as well as some that are fairly rare and quite odd. But, as usual, the plants took me on a slightly different journey. They took me, in a way, to the exotic and botanically rich Southeast Asia of the 1940s.
The sequence of events leading me down this botanical rabbit hole of wonder is this: Looking up common names for a rather odd plant with fruit like starfish growing at Fairchild, specifically the tongue torturer Clerodendrum minahassae var. brevitubulosum, I found it often called “Fairchild’s clerodendrum.” This must mean something interesting, so onto our botanic database I went, typed in the plant name, and found an amazing provenance for this plant:
“Collected directly from the wild, April 17, 1940. Source: David Fairchild.”
This bushy tree with fruit like a red plastic starfish holding a blue pearl was collected by Dr. Fairchild himself while aboard the Cheng Ho expedition to Southeast Asia. Even later in life, when offered the chance to sail to and explore the Moluccas, aka Spice Islands, Fairchild didn’t hesitate to board the custom-made Cheng Ho. They began in 1940 planning on two years of plant collecting, but the onset of World War II cut the expedition short.
But not before Fairchild collected an odd bush growing in Masamba, South Sulawesi, Indonesia—the Clerodendrum flourishing to this day. It’s uncommon in cultivation, though highly ornamental. Looking up its record at Fairchild over the past near 80 years in Florida, I see it seems to have been defoliated by cold spells, but has recovered each time. A self-seeding small tree with long, tubular white flowers, it would make a stunning screen plant especially with its bizarre fruit.
Another Clerodendrum is a now-common landscape plant: Clerodendrum quadriloculare, the starburst clerodendrum. It’s another bushy, small tree to about 12 feet that flowers in late winter and spring. Greenishgray leaves—matte aubergine purple beneath—provide a perfect backdrop to showcase the explosion, or starburst, of magenta and white flowers. This Clerodendrum will produce suckers you may want to remove or allow to fill an otherwise bare area, and after flowering, it should be cut back to ensure bushiness. You can also train it into a more tree-like form by pruning for a single trunk.
Another favorite for butterflies and hummingbirds is the bleeding heart vine. Clerodendrum thomsoniae from western Africa, this climber won’t become a tree, but will cover a trellis with ease. The corolla, that is all the petals taken collectively, is red. The sepals are the part of a flower, usually green, that enclose and protect the petals when all still a bud. Taken as a whole the sepals are called the calyx. It is white in this plant. Except when it’s not, as in Clerodendrum thomsoniae ‘Delectum,’ aka magenta bleeding heart.
If you’re looking to cover an arbor or large trellis, consider Clerodendrum splendens. Flaming glorybower reminds me of a more intense, more robust version of bleeding heart and one once blanketed the northeast edge of the Vine Pergola at Fairchild. It needs strong support.
Clerodendrum paniculatum, pagoda flower, in warmer months produces upright panicles of small brick red flowers held in a tiered pyramid, like a pagoda. It is a Southeast Asia native and will form a short, bushy plant to about 6 feet tall. It also produces suckers and can be a bit of a spreader. It’s such a great butterfly nectar plant that there are quite a few here in the Wings of the Tropics butterfly conservatory.
All of these clerodendrums need full to part sun and warmth. In cooler zones, they may be grown as annuals. Though some like to spread out, a little pruning will be worth it, especially when the butterflies come.