Thunbergia mysorensis (clock vine)

This species is native to southern India, from the Nilgiri Mountains (often referred to as the Nilgiri Hills) to Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin), at elevations reaching 900 m. It is commonly cultivated throughout India, and outdoors elsewhere in warm temperate and tropical areas.

Thunbergia mysorensis

This is a vigorous, winter-flowering climber, with slender twining stems up to 10 m long. It has glossy, green leaves, each around 15 cm long.

The yellow and reddish-brown flowers hang in long racemes (an unbranched, elongated stem with stalked flowers), which can measure up to 90 cm in length. Each flower measures about 5 cm and has a gaping yellow throat and reflexed (turned back) dark red lobes. In the wild, it is pollinated by sunbirds.

Hand-coloured lithograph of Thunbergia mysorensis by W.H. Fitch (1854), taken from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Image: RBG Kew)

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

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Thunbergia mysorensis is widely cultivated as an ornamental in the tropics, as well as in conservatories and greenhouses elsewhere. It has received an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.

As the clock vine comes from a tropical monsoon climate, it requires warm temperatures and ample water in summer, and a dry, cooler winter to flower freely.

The clock vine can be seen in the Palm House and in the tropical section of the Princess of Wales Conservatory.

Pressed and dried, and alcohol-preserved specimens of Thunbergia mysorensis are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers from around the world, by appointment. The details of some of these specimens, including images, can be seen online in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

Royal Horticultural Society – Thunbergia mysorensis

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)