Ruellia L.
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Authority
Wasshausen, Dieter C. & Wood, John R. I. 2004. Acanthaceae of Bolivia. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 49: 1-152.
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Family
Acanthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes with long, thin tuberous roots; leaves petiolate, blades elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, oblong-spathulate, apically acuminate or obtuse, margin entire, slightly undulate or repand-crenulate; inflorescence an axillary, long-pedunculate diehasium or cyme, or 1 or 2 (3) ± sessile. occasionally long-pedicellate flowers in the upper axils combined into a terminal raceme or spike; flowers usually large and showy, regular, sometimes curved; bracts one or absent; bracteoles 2; calyx usually 5-lobed, lobes narrow, mostly equal; corolla red, yellow, white, or purple (usually mauve), funnelform or salverform, contorted in bud, spreading in flower, sometimes saccate, tubular at base, widened and campanulate into throat, limb of 5 equal, obtuse, spreading lobes; stamens 4, didynamous, inserted at top of corolla tube; filament pairs connected at base by a membrane; anthers 2-thecous, the thecae equal, muticous at base; disk annular; ovary with 4-13 superposed ovules per locule; stigma lobes flattened, unequal; capsule oblong or clavate, exploding violently on exposure to water, retinacula remaining attached to capsule wall at maturity; seeds discoid, glabrous when dry, covered or rimmed with sticky mucilaginous trichomes when moistened. One of the largest genera in the family with approximately 250 species of perennial herbs and shrubs with a pantropical distribution. The genus exhibits large and usually showy flowers borne either singly or in various inflorescence forms.