Don't think it's a chenille..

[hhhermida]

...then what else can it be?

[rainbowgardener]

I only know chenille as a bedspread...

But I think your plant is a honeysuckle trumpet vine.

[told2b]

A few plants in the Acalypha genus are
known as chenille plants.

[imafan26]

There are two kinds of chenille plants that are common here. One is the huge acalypha hispida with long fuzzy red flowers and the other is often used in hanging baskets or as a ground cover and if called dwarf chenille or firetail.

https://www.logees.com/thechenilleplant

I don't know what a trumpet vine looks like. It reminds me of gartenmeister bonsted fuscia which looks tubular like that and has similar looking leaves. Yours looks more pale in color than mine but it may just be the way it photographs.
https://www.finegardening.com/fuchsia-fu ... r-bonstedt

[rainbowgardener]

I'm not surprised chenille is a tropical. I haven't lived in warm winter areas since I've been gardening and I know next to nothing about tropicals.

honeysuckle trumpet vine, aka trumpet honeysuckle Lonicera spp:

The native trumpet honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens has round leaves with the stem growing through them



But there are foreign invasive honeysuckle vines, that IME tend to grow all mixed in with the Japanese honeysuckle bush that has eaten much of the midwest. Here's the Tatarian honeysuckle vine, Lonicera tatarica;



That picture doesn't look exactly like the ones I am used to seeing, but I'm sure there are different varieties and this is close.

[Lindsaylew82]

It's not honeysuckle or trumpet flower.

It's Firebush. Biiiiiiiiiig bush! Hummingbirds like them a lot!

[ButterflyLady29]

Ooooohhh! Pretty! I want one.

[imafan26]

I think we have a winner here, it looks just like firebush pictures.

I haven't seen a firebush either but is resembles another common plant here called the cigar plant. Cigar flowers are used to make lei.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamen ... plants.htm

[purpleinopp]

I think Lindsay might have nailed it. Hamelia:
https://floridata.com/Plants/Rubiaceae/H ... patens/174

[hhhermida]

Thanks, everyone.
Lindsay nailed it.

Here's what I finally came up with:

Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Hamelia (ham-EE-lee-uh)
Species: patens (PAT-ens)
Cultivar: Compacta

Hamelia patens
Mexican Fire Bush
Dwarf Mexican Fire Bush
Firecracker Shrub
Scarlet Bush
Hummingbird Bush 'Compacta'

It's incredible how this gardening stuff (helping out my mom), can suck you in. This leads to that, which leads to this, which.....OMG