Lophospermum erubescens, known as Mexican twist[2] or creeping gloxinia,[3] is a climbing or sprawling herbaceous perennial plant, native to the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains of Mexico, where it is found along forest margins or canyon walls.

There are two prominent folds (plicae) running along the length of the base of the flower tube, bearing numerous yellow hairs 1–2 mm (0.04–0.08 in) long.

After fertilization, a more-or-less symmetrical globe-shaped capsule forms, filled with brown seeds, each with a circular "wing" around it.

[6] Don distinguished L. erubescens from L. scandens by features such as the former's more triangular leaves with shorter hairs, and broader, less sharply pointed sepals.

[5] Lophospermum erubescens has previously been placed in other genera now considered distinct but related; for example in Maurandya by Samuel Frederick Gray and in Asarina by Francis Whittier Pennell.

[5] Lophospermum erubescens is native to the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains of Mexico where it is found at elevations between 1,000 and 2,200 m (3,300 and 7,200 ft).

[10] Through its widespread cultivation, it has become naturalized in many tropical and subtropical areas of the world, including Central America (Costa Rica and Panama), the Caribbean (Puerto Rico and Jamaica), South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and southern Brazil), Hawaii,[11] the Azores, Madeira, Madagascar and Réunion, Australia (New South Wales and Queensland),[12] New Zealand (North Island), New Caledonia, Java and New Guinea.

[13] The nectar produced by the flowers is also typical of those pollinated by hummingbirds, being high in sucrose and low in glucose relative to fructose.

[17] In areas subject to frost, it will survive if cut down to near ground level and the base and roots protected from freezing over winter.

Maurandya has smooth rather than hairy leaves with entire rather than toothed margins, and smaller flowers with a tube at most about 30 mm (1.2 in) long.