Firespike
Odontonema tubaeforme (Bertol.) Kuntze
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 2.4 m
- wide
- —
Acanthaceae
Also called Cardinal's guard flower, Fire spike
Formerly Justicia tubaeformis, Odontonema amicorum, Odontonema flagellum, Odontonema longifolium, and 7 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- ShrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- S. Mexico to ColombiaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 1.8 m to 3.0 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- RedRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Coldest it survives
- -6.7 °C (USDA zone 9a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: spread, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (7)
- Chinese
- 紅樓花, 雞冠爵床, 红苞花
- Japanese
- ベニツツバナ
- Chinese (China)
- 鸡冠爵床
- Spanish
- Espiga de fuego, Camarón rojo
- Russian
- Одонтонема трубчатовидная
- Hebrew
- עב שיבולת אדום
- Finnish
- meksikontulitähkä
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Odontonema tubaeforme (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.