Ruellia coccinea (L.) Vahl

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Acanthaceae

• Scientific Name

  Ruellia coccinea (L.) Vahl

• Description

  Species Description - Quite different in aspect from its relative, Ruellia tuberose, this scarlet-flowered, herbaceous plant has formerly been classified as belonging to different genera by several authors, but the similarity of flower-structure has led recent botanists to include it in Ruellia, differences in the shape of the corolla notwithstanding. It inhabits shaded banks, thickets and woodlands, in wet or moist parts of Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations, locally abundant, showy and conspicuous when in bloom, but we have not seen it cultivated; it grows in Santo Domingo, Haiti, eastward through the Virgin Islands to Tortola and is recorded from Guadeloupe and Dominica. For an account of the genus Ruellia we refer to our description of Ruellia tuberosa. Ruellia coccinea is a branched, somewhat woody perennial herb from 0.5 to 2 meters high, its young branches finely hairy. Its leaves are lance-shaped, pointed, stalked, smooth or somewhat hairy, from 3 to 9 centimeters long, pointed, with scalloped margins; the flowers are borne solitary, or few together, in the leaf-axils; the narrow, hairy, segments of the calyx are unequal, from 6 to 8 millimeters long; the scarlet, finely hairy corolla is 2.5 or 3 centimeters long, its somewhat curved tube

• Discussion

  Maravilla Scarlet Ruellia Acanthus Family Barleria coccinea Linnaeus, Species Plantaram 637. 1753. Ruellia coccinea Vahl, Symbolae Botanicae 3: 83. 1794.