[3] Although the specific epithet is sometimes spelled atrosanguineum, chiton in Greek is masculine,[4] so the ending is correctly -us.

[7] Its dangling flowers have a pink, bell-shaped calyx of sepals surrounding a protruding, tubular corolla of purple-black petals.

[8] In 1829, Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini sent seeds and a description to individuals and botanical gardens under the name "Rhodochiton volubile", considering it to be a new genus; however the name was not formally published.

"[9] Not knowing of Zuccharini's change of name, in particular his publication of the epithet atrosanguineum, in 1834 Christoph Friedrich Otto and Albert Gottfried Dietrich published and illustrated Rhodochiton volubilis, an illegitimate name since a prior epithet existed.

[5][Note 2] Rhodochiton atrosanguineus has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.