Justicia scandensVahl

WFO wfo-0000354061 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Justicia scandens, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. a Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / 2013-01-18 / obs. 15168107
Justicia scandens, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. b Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 15168106
Justicia scandens, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. c Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 15168103
Justicia scandens, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. d Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 15168100

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Justicia scandens is native: Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam BotswanaCameroonCentral African RepublicDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaIvory CoastKenyaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweIndiaSri LankaThailandVietnam
Native distribution of Justicia scandens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Botswana BOT AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 17 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ecbolium abyssinicum Kuntze
  • Gendarussa abyssinica Hochst. ex Nees
  • Gendarussa dichotoma Hochst. ex Nees
  • Justicia careyana Wall.
  • Justicia corymbosa Willd. ex Nees
  • Justicia cymosa Nees
  • Justicia dichotoma Wall.
  • Justicia glabra J.Koenig ex Roxb.
  • Justicia glabra var. pubescens T.Anderson
  • Justicia glabrata Rottler ex Wall.
  • Justicia mauritiana Thouars ex Schult.
  • Justicia umbellata Nees
  • Rhaphidospora abyssinica Nees
  • Rhaphidospora glabra (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) Nees
  • Rhaphidospora glabra var. pubescens (T.Anderson) Lindau
  • Rhaphidospora glabrituba Bremek.
  • Rhinacanthus scandens (Vahl) M.R.Almeida

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.