Starburst Bush

The bronze-leaved clerodendrum is a medium to large-sized shrub growing to a height of about 5 m (16 ft). The branches and twigs are four-sided. The leaves are in opposite pairs and are borne on medium-length petioles. The leaf blades are oblong and up to 20 cm (8 in) long, the upper surface being green and the underside purple; they have rounded bases, wavy margins and pointed tips. The showy flower clusters are borne at the tips of the shoots. Each contains many flowers with slender pink tubes about 7 cm (3 in) long, each terminated by five slender white, reflexed corolla lobes about 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long. The flowers are followed by ellipsoid, capsules containing four seeds. The corolla tubes are exceptionally long and require specialist pollinators.

The bronze-leaved clerodendrum is native to the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, and has also been recorded from American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, and Samoa, as well as Puerto Rico, Singapore, and Hawaii. As well as parks and gardens, it is found on road verges and on disturbed ground, pastures, forest edges and undisturbed forests where it is able to displace native species.