Justicia betonica
Content
Description
Herbaceous or clumping herb to 1 m tall. Young stem erect, subquadrate to terete, sparingly branched, glabrous, tips minutely pubescent. Petiole 0.8-6 cm long; blade ovate to lanceolate, 7.5-13 x 4.5-6 cm (the lowermost sometimes much larger), margin entire, acute to short-acuminate at apex, shortly attenuate at base, both surfaces punctate not lineolate, glabrous; primary vein and secondary veins (ca. 6 pairs) prominent below. Inflorescence terminal and often axillary spikes of 4.5-5 x 1.5-2 cm, flowers 1 per node; peduncle 1.5-2 cm long, tip puberulous; rachis densely puberulous; bracts imbricate, white with green venation, ovate-lanceolate, 10-15 x 8 mm, margin entire, ciliolate, apically acute, obtuse or rounded at base, often obliquely so, both surfaces glabrous or nearly so; bracteoles 0.8-12 x 4.5-5 mm, similar to bracts. Flowers sessile to subsessile; calyx 5-lobed, 5-5.5 mm long, lobes equal, linear-lanceolate, 4.5-5 x 1-1.2 mm, densely pubescent with both glandular and eglandular trichomes, carinate; corolla white-rose spotted to lavender-pink, 11-16 mm long, pubescent without, tube 7-9 mm long, 2-4 mm in diam., upper lip erect, narrowly ovate, 4-7 mm long, 2-lobed, lobes 0.75-1 mm long, lower lip spreading, 5-7 mm long, lobes 4-5 x 2.5-4 mm, all narrowly ovate and apically rounded to truncate; stamens exserted 4-5 mm beyond mouth of corolla tube, anther thecae subequal, subparallel, unequally inserted, upper theca attached to connective, 0.5-0.75 mm long, basal theca appendaged; style 10-11 mm long, proximally pubescent, minutely bilobed. Capsule 14-16 x 4-5 x 3-5 mm, stipe 5-6 mm long, body ovoid to subspheric to ellipsoid-obovoid, 8-9 mm long, often with a slight medial constriction; seeds 4, subspheric, 2-2.5 x 2-3 x 1.5-2 mm, brown, glabrous, densely rugose when dry, smooth when fully ripened.