Bedina / Schizomussaenda
Mussaenda frondosa
- Habit
- Climbing shrub
- Found in India
- Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Bedina
Identify Bedina by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a climbing shrub habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: One enlarged white petal-like sepal beside small yellow flowers.
- Confirm leaf surface: Pubescent (softly hairy).
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Rubiaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Bedina.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Mussaenda frondosa
- Genus
- Mussaenda
- Family
- Rubiaceae
- Habit
- Climbing shrub
- Habitat
- Moist deciduous and semi-Evergreen forests, also in the plains
- Habitat type
- Forest
- Distribution
- India
- Found in India
- Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Goa, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Sikkim, Uttarakhand
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf surface
- Pubescent (softly hairy)recorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Opposite
Characters marked “recorded” are for Bedina itself; the rest are typical of the Rubiaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellowrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Cyme
- Fruit
- Berry
Characters marked “recorded” are for Bedina itself; the rest are typical of the Rubiaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- बेदिना Bedina
- Bengali
- নাগবল্লী Nagaballi, নাগবল্লী
- Kannada
- ಬೆಳ್ಳೋತಿ Belloti, ಬಿಲ್ಲೋಟ Billota, ಬೆಲ್ಲೊಟ್ಟೆ Bellotte
- Malayalam
- വെള്ളില Vellila, വെള്ളില, Mussaenda frondosa
- Marathi
- भूतकेश Bhutakesha, सरवड Sarvad
About Bedina
Schizomussaenda (Mussaenda frondosa) is a climbing shrub in the Rubiaceae family. In India it has been recorded in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and 10 other states. It grows in moist deciduous and semi-Evergreen forests, also in the plains. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Rubiaceae
Coffee/Madder family
Bedina belongs to the Rubiaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Rubiaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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