Greek agapetos—beloved.
Evergreen spreading shrubs sometimes epiphytic in nature and often grown in hanging baskets. Leaves alternate, simple, leathery. Flowers solitary or in axillary clusters, mostly rich green to whitish, yellow or red. Calyx 5-lobed, sometimes winged or ribbed. Corolla tubular to almost spherical or lantern-like. Stamens 10, sometimes with spurs. Ovary inferior. Fruit a 5-celled winged berry containing numerous seeds. [Pentapterygium Klotzsch]
The rarely cultivated species A. meiniana F. Muell., Misty Bells, a climbing native species from Queensland, A. rugosum (Hook.) Sleumer from Himalaya, and A. moorei Hemsl. from Burma are in the key only.
Leaves of some species in India are used to make a tea.
Flowers with characteristic V-shaped markings.
About 95 species from tropical E Asia to NE Australia (1 species).
Source: (1997). Ericaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
A hybrid between A. rugosum and A. serpens with ovate leaves and reddish flowers with prominent white v-shaped markings.
