Mussaenda elegansSchumach. & Thonn.

WFO wfo-0000246538 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, 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.

Mussaenda elegans, photographed by Viken
fig. a Viken, CC BY 4.0 / 2018-06-23 / obs. 20236028
Mussaenda elegans, photographed by Viken
fig. b Viken, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 20236032
Mussaenda elegans, photographed by Viken
fig. c Viken, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 20236033
Mussaenda elegans, photographed by Viken
fig. d Viken, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 20236036
Mussaenda elegans, photographed by Sunday Berlioz KAKPO
fig. e Sunday Berlioz KAKPO, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 28982105
Mussaenda elegans, photographed by Sunday Berlioz KAKPO
fig. f Sunday Berlioz KAKPO, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85895925

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 20 botanical countries

Regions where Mussaenda elegans is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Togo, Uganda AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicCongoDR CongoGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastLiberiaMaliNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTogoUganda
Native distribution of Mussaenda elegans, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Liberia LBR
Mali MLI
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA

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 7 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.

  • Bertiera coccinea (G.Don) G.Don
  • Gardenia coccinea G.Don
  • Mussaenda discolor Thonn. ex DC.
  • Mussaenda elegans var. minor De Wild. & T.Durand
  • Mussaenda elegans var. psilocarpa Wernham
  • Mussaenda elegans var. rotundifolia Wernham
  • Mussaenda hispida Engl.

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.