Acanthaceae

Ruellia tubiflora

Representative Image
Representative image.

Kingdom: Plantae Rank: Species Parent: Ruellia Status: Valid

Morphological Description

Diagnosis: Herb to ca. 70 cm tall. Flowers purple to lilac, sometimes white below.

Vegetative Morphology

Habit: Herb to ca. 70 cm tall.

Leaves: Leaves simple, opposite; petioles short, ca. 1 cm long, light pubescent along the margins; lamina elliptic to obovate-elliptic, to 6 x 18 cm, drying dark green above, greyish below, cystoliths conspicuous on upper surface, the base decurrent, weakly asymmetric, the apex short acuminate, the margins entire.

Reproductive Morphology

Inflorescence: Inflorescence of solitary flowers in leaf axils.

Flowers: Flowers large, showy; calyx actinomorphic, the lobes linear, drying brown, lightly pubescent; corolla funnelform to rotate, to ca. 5 cm long, 5-lobed, the tube white to violet, the lobes purple to violet to sometimes white; fertile stamens 4, didynamous, only light exerted from corolla.

Fruit: Fruit a clavate, bivalved capsule to 2 cm long, light brown when dry, lightly pubescent.

Seeds: Seeds ca. 10-20 per fruit.

Other

Ecology: Terra firme, secondary, or mixed palm forest.