Ruellia longifolia
Content
Description
Erect herbs, 40-100 cm tall. Stem green, brittle, quadrangular, with acute angles, creeping at base and rooting at nodes, glabrous. Petiole ca. 5 mm long, glabrous, narrowly winged; blade rather firm, linear to narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 12-15 x 0.8-2.5 cm, upper surface dark green, glabrous, attenuate and slenderly acuminate at apex, attenuate at base and decurrent on petiole, margin sinuate; primary vein and secondary veins (5-7 pairs) somewhat more conspicuous on lower surface; cystoliths numerous and conspicuous under a lens, especially on lower surface. Inflorescence axillary and terminal, pedunculate, flowers in lax, dichotomously branched cymes; peduncle 6-15 cm long, glabrous or sparingly and inconspicuously puberulous, slender, curved, quadrangular; basal bracts linear, 25-35 mm long, glabrous; pedicels 2-6 mm, glabrous to sparingly puberulous; bracteoles subulate, 2 x 0.6 mm, glabrous to sparingly puberulous. Calyx lobes narrowly linear to subsubulate, 4.5-6 x 0.75 mm, glabrous or sparingly puberulous, especially near margin; corolla 30-40 mm long, tube white, slightly curved, 15 mm long, 1 mm wide at base, throat turned up from tube, 15 x 6-7 mm, limb suberect, white to violet or lilac, lobes obovate, ca. 4.5 x 4.5 mm, sparingly puberulous, retuse at apex; stamens included, ca. 11 mm long. Capsule clavate, 12 x 3.5 x 2.5 mm, yellowish-brown, minutely puberulous, stipe 4 mm long, apically acute and apiculate; seeds dark brown, 2.2 x 2.5 mm, glabrous except for margin.