Mussaenda is a popular landscape plant for South Florida gardens and landscapes. They are classified in the family Rubiaceae with Ixora, coffee, pentas, and Firebush. Most are large tropical, evergreen, or semi-deciduous shrubs with an open habit. The leaves are opposite of each other on the stem, bright green, deeply veined, and oval to elliptic in shape.

Mussaenda is one of the most sought-after tropical shrubs because of its tremendous beauty, displayed by highly colored flower bracts that bloom throughout the warmer and hotter months of the year.