Ruellia erythropus (Nees) Lindau

• Authority

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

• Family

  Acanthaceae

• Scientific Name

  Ruellia erythropus (Nees) Lindau

• Type

  Siphonacanthus erythropus Nees, in Mart., Fl. Bras. 9(7):47. 1847. Type: Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul Porto Alegre, Sellow s.n. K). Blechum tweedii Nees, in DC, Prodr. 11:466. 1847. - Ruellia tweedii (Nees) T. Anders, ex Morong & Britton, Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 7:192. 1893. Type: Argentina, Parana ("Panama''), Tweedie s.n. (holotype K). Ruellia puhiflora Griseb., Abh. Konigl. Ges. Wiss. Gottingen 24:259. 1879. Type: Argentina, Salta, San Jose, Oran, Lorentz & Hieronymous 550 (holotype GOET; isotype CORD). Ruellia matogrossensis Lindau, Bull. Herb. Boiss., ser. I, 3:362. 1895. Type: Brazil, Mato Grosso, Jacobina, Kuntze s.n. (holotype B, destroyed; isotype NY). Ruellia velascana Lindau, Bull. Herb. Boiss., ser. I, 3:363. 1895. Type: Bolivia, Santa Cruz, Velasco, Kuntze s.n. (holotype B, destroyed; F photo 18222; isotype NY).

• Description

  Description - Erect or straggling suffruticose perennial 20-60 cm, with a ligneous base and tough, fibrous root; stems decumbent, somewhat woody, glabrous; leaf blades petiolate, elliptic to ovate, glabrous, margin entire; inflorescence terminal, densely foliose spikes; flowers sessile, solitary in axils of upper leaves; calyx unequally cleft, two lateral lobes united to two lower ones, posterior free; corolla erect, blue, 25-35 mm, tube 15 mm long, throat campanulate-obconic, lobes spreading, orbicular; capsule ovate.