Surkilla / Telosma Vine
Telosma pallida
- Habit
- Climbing shrub
- Found in India
- Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat & more
- Flowering
- May-December
How to identify Surkilla
Identify Surkilla 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: Fragrant pale flower clusters.
- Confirm leaf shape: Heart-shaped.
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow-green.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: May-December.
- In India, compare location records such as Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Asclepiadaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Surkilla.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Telosma pallida
- Genus
- Telosma
- Family
- Asclepiadaceae
- Habit
- Climbing shrub
- Habitat
- Scrub jungles
- Habitat type
- Scrub
- Distribution
- India, Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam
- Found in India
- Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, West Bengal
- Flowering & fruiting
- May-December
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- Heart-shapedrecorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Opposite
Characters marked “recorded” are for Surkilla itself; the rest are typical of the Asclepiadaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellow-greenrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Cyme
- Fruit
- Follicle
Characters marked “recorded” are for Surkilla itself; the rest are typical of the Asclepiadaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- Surkilla
- Malayalam
- പാൽക്കുരുമ്പ
About Surkilla
Telosma Vine (Telosma pallida) is a climbing shrub in the Asclepiadaceae family. In India it has been recorded in Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and 5 other states. It grows in scrub jungles. Flowering and fruiting run from May to December.
Asclepiadaceae
Milkweed Family
Surkilla belongs to the Asclepiadaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Asclepiadaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Surkilla or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
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.
All plant problem & care guides