Family: Bignoniaceae
Pyrostegia venusta, commonly known as flame vine, flame flower, or orange trumpet vine, is a fast-growing, woody climbing vine native to South America, particularly Brazil. Flame vine is prized for its spectacular winter displays of bright orange, trumpet-shaped flowers that form dense clusters and attract pollinators. Because of its vigorous growth and showy blooms, flame vine has been widely planted as an ornamental to cover fences, walls, and trellises, and is often used for quick screening or decorative ground cover in warm climates.
Despite its popularity, flame vine poses significant ecological risks. It grows aggressively, producing long, heavy stems that can smother shrubs and trees, block sunlight, and outcompete native vegetation. Once established, it is difficult to control and can spread beyond cultivated areas. In Hawaiʻi, flame vine is naturalized on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu, where it has escaped cultivation and begun spreading in the landscape. Its ability to form dense mats makes it a threat to native and managed ecosystems, particularly in disturbed areas.
Due to these impacts and its invasive tendencies, growers should be aware of risky characteristics prior to planting flame vine in yards. We always recommend considering non-invasive alternatives first. However, if you would like to grow this vine for lei-making or ornamental purposes, please be sure to actively manage patches.
Name Origins
Even though this vine is not native, it was given the Hawaiian name huapala. Most likely because of its use in lei. Pala can refer to a reddish-yellow hue like the flower color or it can be something super ripe. Huapala can literally mean “ripe fruit,” which is something desired. This makes sense of why Huapala often refers to a lover or sweetheart.
Most interestingly, huapala shares its name with Vivienne Mader Huapala who was born in 1901 in Brooklyn. Aunty Vivienne was gifted her Hawaiian name Huapala because she was as beloved as the sweetheart flower itself. She was a master of classical and interpretive dance in New York. So when she moved to Hawaiʻi in the 1920s, she became a student of hula under Kumu Hula Helen Desha Beamer. Her love for hula inspired her to record many of these dances, oli, and mele for the first time with permission. She never stopped dancing hula, even after returning back to New York.
High Risk Traits:
- Naturalizes outside native range (Hawaiian Islands of Kaua'i and O'ahu, FL, Jamaica)
- Broad climate & soil tolerance
- Repeatedly introduced globally
- Agricultural/environmental weed (smothers trees, crops)
- Climbing/smothering growth habit
- Produces viable, wind-dispersed seeds
- Self-compatible (can self-pollinate)
- Tolerates cutting and regrows from roots
- Grows in sun to partial shade
- Herbicide-resistant (hard to control chemically)
Low Risk Traits:
- Not spiny, toxic, or allelopathic
- Does not spread vegetatively
- Seeds not dispersed by animals/water
- Requires specialist pollinators (hummingbirds)
