Justicia carthagenensis Jacq.
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Authority
Leonard, Emery C. 1958. The Acanthaceae of Colombia, III. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 31: 323-781.
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Family
Acanthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Herbaceous or suffrutescent, up to 1.5 meters high; stems erect or ascending, branched, subquadrangular (the angles rounded), shallowly sulcate, glabrous or rather densely hirtellous, the hairs straight or curved, spreading or retrorse, up to 0.5 mm. long, whitish; leaf blades ovate, elliptic-ovate or broadly lanceolate, 2 to 8 cm. long, 1.5 to 5 cm. wide, short to rather slenderly acuminate with blunt or acutish tips, or sometimes acute, obtuse or even rounded, narrowed or occasionally rounded at base and decurrent on the petiole, glabrous to rather densely hirtellous, the lower surface even velvety to touch, the costa and veins (7 or 8 pairs) moderately prominent on both surfaces, the cystoliths usually 150 to 250 µ long; petioles up to 2 cm. long, glabrous to hirtellous; flowers borne in dense terminal bracted spikes 2 to 7 cm. long and about 2 cm. broad; bracts spathulate, usually 10 to 15 mm. long and 2.5 to 6 mm. wide, rounded or obtuse at tip, more or less apiculate, narrowed from about the middle to a slender claw, subglabrous to moderately hirtellous and ciliate, the hairs spreading or ascending, up to 0.5 mm. long, some of them gland-tipped, the cystoliths usually conspicuous; bracts subtending the flowers narrowly spathulate, usually 7 to 10 mm. long and 1 to 3 mm. wide, rounded or obtuse, more or less hirtellous witit glandular and eglandular hairs ; calyx segments 5, narrowly lanceolate, 10 to 11 mm. long, I to 1.5 mm. wide, slenderly pointed, white-margined, more or less hirtellous and ciliate; corollas reddish purple, violet, or rarely white, glabrous to sparingly hirsute, the hairs up to 0.1 mm. long, sometimes a few of them gland-tipped, the tube 1.5 mm. long, 4 mm. broad at base, narrowed at 3 mm. above base to 3 mm., thence gradually expanded to about 4 mm. at mouth, the upper lip erect, triangular-ovate, about 10 mm. long and wide, rounded and notched at tip, the lower lip spreading, up to 17 mm. long, 3-lobed, the middle lobe 8 mm. wide, the lateral ones 7 mm. wide, all ovate and rounded at tip; stamens exserted about 5 mm. beyond mouth of corolla tube, the filaments 11 mm. long, glabrous, the anther lobes 2.2 mm. long, spreading, the upper lobe attached 1 mm. above the short-spurred lower lobe; style 20 to 22 mm. long, sparsely hirtellous toward base; stigma more or less 2-lobed; capsules clavate, 16 mm. long, 6 mm. broad and 3 mm. thick, subobtuse at tip (the solid basal portion 7 mm. long), puberulous, the hairs spreading or the lower ones retrorse, retinacula stout, 3 mm. long and 1 mm. wide, flattened, rounded at tip, this entire or coarsely erose; seeds only slightly flat-tened, almost spherical, puberulous or glabrate, 2.5 to 3 mm. in diameter, whitish, or black at maturity.
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Discussion
The species exhibits considerable variation. The upper lip of the corollas of Killip and Smith's No. 14711 was reported to be transversely white-barred at center. This may be a common character, but color markings are usually not apparent in dried herbarium material. The width of tlie bracts is especially variable. For instance, those of H. H. Smith's No. 566 from Bonda are fully 1 mm. wide with broadly rounded, almost truncate, and subemarginate apiculate tips, and those of Pennell's No. 2722 are barely 1 mm. wide and subacute. The pubescence of most of the specimens cited is sparse, but Haught's No. 4391 from Fonseca is dense, and soft and velvety to the touch. None of these characters, however, are consistent enough to warrant the maintenance of varieties or forms.