Ruellia schnellii
Content
Description
Creeping herb, 50 cm tall, branched from a subligneous base. Stem erect, terete, branching, glabrate and gland-dotted. Petiole 5-15 mm long, canaliculate, puberulous; blade narrowly elliptic to oblong, 9-12 x 2.5-4 cm, thin, short-acuminate at apex, long-attenuate at base, partially decurrent on petiole, margin entire or faintly and irregularly crenulate, glabrous or nearly so on both upper and lower surface; primary vein sulcate on upper surface, secondary veins (8-10 pairs), convex on both surfaces. Inflorescence a terminal spike or raceme, 5-10 cm long, sessile to shortly pedunculate; peduncle to 8 mm long; flowers opposite, solitary in axils of showy, distal, foliose bracts; foliose bracts bicolored, elliptic to narrowly ovate, 22-40 x 8-18 mm, glabrous, gland-dotted, acute to acuminate at apex, attenuate at base. Calyx 4-5 mm long, glabrous and gland-dotted, lobes narrowly triangular, 3 x 0.8-10 mm; corolla brick-red, glabrous, 35-40 mm long, tube infundibular, curved, 6-8 mm wide at mouth, limb spreading, 20-2 mm wide, lobes oval to suborbicular, retuse at apex; stamens slightly exserted from mouth of corolla, anthers 3-4 mm long; ovary and style puberulous. Capsule clavate, 12-14 x 6 x 3-3.5 mm, glabrous, nitid, drying brownish, apiculate at apex, stipe 3-4 mm long; seeds flat, dark-brown, orbicular, 4 x 3.5 x 1 mm, appressed pilose when dry, mucilaginous-pilose when moistened.