Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum

Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum (Lamiaceae, formerly Verbenaceae), known in Chinese as dà qīng (大青) and lù bian qīng, is an evergreen shrub or small tree 1–4 m tall, native to southern China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and adjacent Southeast Asia. The branchlets are slender, sub-quadrangular, finely puberulent when young. Leaves are opposite, simple, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 6–20 cm long, entire, glabrous above and slightly pubescent on the veins beneath, with a long-acuminate apex; they turn bluish-black on drying, a feature reflected in the Chinese name dà qīng ('great blue-green'). The inflorescence is a large terminal corymbose panicle of many small white tubular five-lobed flowers with long-exserted stamens. The fruit is a small bluish-purple to black drupe seated in a persistent reddish calyx. Habitat is forest margins, thickets and roadsides at low to mid elevations.