Asystasia gangetica (L.) T.Anderson

  • Authority

    Wasshausen, Dieter C. & Wood, John R. I. 2004. Acanthaceae of Bolivia. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 49: 1-152.

  • Family

    Acanthaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Asystasia gangetica (L.) T.Anderson

  • Type

    Type: India, Anon. s.n. (LINN). Asystasia coromandeliana Nees, in Wallich, PI. Asiatic. Rar. 3:89. 1832. nam. illeg. fig. 5.

  • Description

    Description - Perennial shrub or subshrub to 1.5 m, procumbent or clambering; branches ± quadrangular, sometimes furrowed on both sides, often constricted above nodes, these pubescent, glabrate or pubescent with trichomes disposed in decussating lines; leaves petiolate, opposite pair connected by a transverse ridge; blades ovate, 15- 45 (90) x 5-30 (50) mm, apex abruptly acuminate, truncate at base, glabrous or minutely pubescent above, minutely and sparingly pubescent below, margin ± entire to shallowly erose; leaves subtending peduncles reduced, narrower than cauline leaves; inflorescence an axillary or terminal, often 1-sided raceme 4-10 (20) cm long; peduncles to 5.5 cm long; bracts in opposite pairs on either side of peduncle, triangular, 0.8 x 0.75-1.5 mm, pubescent; bracteoles similar to bracts but smaller; flowers borne singly at nodes; pedicels 0.5-1.5 mm long; calyx 5-lobed, 5-10 mm long, glabrous or pubescent without; corolla more or less regular, yellow with purplish throat, infundibuliform, inconspicuously puberulous without tube and throat funnelform, 15-20 mm long, tube half as long as ampliate throat, this 13 mm wide, limb 5-lobed, lobes 8.5 x 1.5 mm in diam., rounded, conspicuously and coarsely reticulate veined; stamens 4, ± equal, inserted in pairs in widened part of corolla tube; anthers 2- thecous, theca parallel, sparsely eglandular and glandular pubescent dorsally; ovary pubescent; capsule stipitate, pubescent, 20-25 mm long, retinacula 2 in each valve, often 1 and its seeds not fully developed; seeds 2 or 4, 4 x 4 mm, smooth on sides.