| + | Ruellia (after Jean de la Ruelle, a French botanist). Syn. Stephanophysum. Acanthaceae. Villous, pubescent or rarely glabrous herbs or shrubs, a few species grown under glass and also outdoors mainly in the South. |
| + | Leaves opposite, entire or rarely dentate: fls. shades of blue or purple to violet, white, rose to red and rarely yellow to orange, sessile to long-peduncled, axillary, solitary or fascicled or cymose paniculate; calyx deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted, segms. linear or lanceolate; corolla-tube straight incurved or abruptly inflexed, the limb spreading, the lobes ovate or rounded; stamens 4, didynamous: caps, oblong-linear or clavate.—About 200 species, chiefly Trop. S. Amer., a few in N. Amer. and extra-Trop. S. Amer., some in Trop. and S. Afr., Temp. Asia and in Austral. |