Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Thunbergia alata
- Habit
- Climber
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- December-March
How to identify Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Identify Black-Eyed Susan Vine by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a climber habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Orange flowers with a dark central eye (black-eyed Susan vine).
- Confirm leaf shape: Sagittate.
- Confirm leaf surface: Glabrous (smooth, hairless).
- Confirm flower colour: Orange.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: December-March.
- In India, compare location records such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala and nearby regions.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Thunbergia alata
- Genus
- Thunbergia
- Family
- Acanthaceae
- Habit
- Climber
- Native to
- Tropical Africa
- Distribution
- Cultivated in tropics
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Manipur, Telangana, Uttarakhand
- Flowering & fruiting
- December-March
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- SagittaterecordedArrowhead-shaped, with pointed backward-facing lobes at the base.“It has twining stems with heart or arrow-shaped leaves.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf surface
- Glabrous (smooth, hairless)recorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Opposite
Characters marked “recorded” are for Black-Eyed Susan Vine itself; the rest are typical of the Acanthaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Orangerecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Capsule
Characters marked “recorded” are for Black-Eyed Susan Vine itself; the rest are typical of the Acanthaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Bengali
- হুতুম-মণি লতা, কাজল আঁখি
- Tamil
- துன்பேர்சியா அலாடா
- Malayalam
- കരിങ്കണ്ണി
About Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Black-eyed Susan Vine (Thunbergia alata) is a climber in the Acanthaceae family. In India it has been recorded in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and 14 other states. Flowering and fruiting run from December to March.
Uses
Locally it is planted as an ornamental and stripped for fibre used in rope and matting.
Acanthaceae
Acanthus family
Black-Eyed Susan Vine belongs to the Acanthaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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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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