Ruellia inflata
Description
Scandent herb or subshrub to 4 m tall. Stem obscurely quadrangular, glabrous or puberulous toward tip. Petiole 0.5-2 cm long, glabrous or puberulous; blade asymmetrical, lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, 9-16 x 3-5 cm, glabrous, acuminate at apex, narrowed and unequally subcordate at base, repand-crenate, margin and primary vein of upper surface bearing a few, small trichomes. Inflorescence pendulous, flowers few, secund on axillary, sometimes dichotomously branched peduncles or on short, bifurcate branches terminating in slender, 13-17 cm long peduncles, these quadrangular, grayish-white pubescent, both branches and flowers produced at nodes; secondary peduncles 2-4 cm long, pubescent, lowest node subtended by a pair of oblanceolate, leaflike bracts 15-20 x 35 mm; bracts subtending secondary peduncles oblong, ca. 10 x 2 mm, glabrous; pedicels short, 2.5-5 mm long, glandular-pilose. Calyx 17-33 mm long, pubescent with both eglandular and glandular, unicellular and multicellular trichomes, lobes linear, 18-20 x 1.25 mm; corolla salverform, 60-70 mm long, scarlet or bright red, minutely pubescent, tube slightly curved and ventricose, 3 mm wide at base, gradually enlarged to 12-15 mm at mouth, limb to 30 mm wide, lobes oblong-ovate, 9-10 x 6 mm, obtuse; stamens exserted about 20 mm beyond mouth of corolla tube, filaments glabrous, anthers curved, ca. 5 mm long. Capsule clavate, 19 x 5.5 mm, puberulous, gland-dotted, rather bluntly pointed, narrowed to a stipe of about 5 mm long; seeds brown, about 4.5 x 3.5 mm, appressed-puberulous.
Distribution
Amazonian Brazil present, French Guiana present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Brazil North (Acre present); Brazil Northeast (Maranhao present); Peru (Peru present)
French Guiana, Amazonian Brazil (Acre to Maranhão), Peru and Bolivia; occasional; 87 collections studied (FG: 14).