See text Rhodochiton is a genus of flowering plants within the family Plantaginaceae, native to southern Mexico and neighbouring Guatemala.

The sepals, usually tinted rose or purple, are joined at the base and together form an expanded bell shape around the flower.

[3] In 1829, Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini sent seeds and a description to individuals and botanical gardens under the name "Rhodochiton volubile"; however this name was not published so no new genus name was established.

In 1832, Zuccarini published the name Lophospermum atrosanguineum for the same species, writing that "I held it at first to be new genus and sent the seeds obtained in the summer of 1829 to several gardens under the name Rhodochiton volubile.

[4] Not knowing of Zuccharini's change of name, in 1834 Christoph Friedrich Otto and Albert Gottfried Dietrich published and illustrated Rhodochiton volubilis.

[2][7] A number of molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that subtribe Maurandyinae, defined by Elisens to consist of the five North American genera Holmgrenanthe, Lophospermum, Mabrya, Maurandya and Rhodochiton, forms a monophyletic group, which is related to the Old World genera Cymbalaria and Asarina.

other clades Asarina Cymbalaria Maurandya (including M. antirrhiniflora) Rhodochiton Lophospermum Mabrya Vargas et al. concluded that the Antirrhineae evolved in the Old World and subsequently colonized North America more than once, probably in the Miocene epoch (23 to 5 million years ago).