Acanthaceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are tropical herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are epiphytes. Only a few species are distributed in temperate regions. The four main centres of distribution are Indonesia and Malaysia, Africa, Brazil, and Central America. Representatives of the family can be found in nearly every habitat, including dense or open forests, scrublands, wet fields and valleys, sea coast and marine areas, swamps, and mangrove forests.
Ruellia is a genus of flowering plants commonly known as ruellias or wild petunias. They are not closely related to petunias (Petunia) although both genera belong to the same euasterid clade. The genus was named in honor of Jean Ruelle (1474–1537), herbalist and physician to Francis I of France and translator of several works of Dioscorides.
Ruellia brevifolia, the tropical wild petunia or red Christmas pride, is an ornamental plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is native to South America, from Colombia to southern Brazil and northern Argentina.
Ruellia simplex, the Mexican petunia, Mexican bluebell or Britton's wild petunia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is a native of Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. It has become a widespread invasive plant in Florida, where it was likely introduced as an ornamental before 1933, as well as in the eastern Mediterranean, South Asia and other parts of the eastern hemisphere.
Ruellia humilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is native to the eastern United States. It is grown as an ornamental plant.
Ruellia capitata is a plant native to Cerrado vegetation of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
Mackaya neesiana is a plant species in the family Acanthaceae. It has various synonyms including Ruellia neesiana and Asystasiella neesiana. This species is cited in Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The Neighbouring Countries by William Griffith under the synonym Ruellia neesiana.
Ruellia dissitifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is native to the Cerrado vegetation of Brazil.
Ruellia macrantha, or Christmas pride, is a plant native to the cerrado vegetation of Brazil, which is usually used as an ornamental plant. This plant is cited in Flora Brasiliensis by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius.
Ilex trachyphylla is a species of plant in the family Aquifoliaceae. It is endemic to Peru.
Ruellia tuberosa, also known as minnieroot, fever root, snapdragon root and sheep potato, is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. Its native range is in Central America but presently it has become naturalized in many countries of tropical South and Southeast Asia.
Jean Ruel, also known as Jean Ruelle or Ioannes Ruellius in its Latinised form, was a French physician and botanist noted for the 1536 publication in Paris of De Natura Stirpium, a Renaissance treatise on botany.
Philotheca trachyphylla, commonly known as rock wax-flower, is a species of plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with glandular-warty, oblong to narrow egg-shaped leaves and white flowers arranged singly or in twos or threes, in leaf axils.
Strobilanthes penstemonoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. It occurs in China, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. Its specific epithet has been spelled as penstemonoides, pentstemonoides, and pentastemonoides.
Strobilanthes reptans is a species of Strobilanthes native to Tropical and Subtropical Asia and the West Pacific, but also found in Florida and Louisiana after being introduced. It has at 35 synonyms mainly in the genus Hemigraphis with 28, another 5 in Ruellia plus Strobilanthes primulifolia and Strobilanthes tawadana. It has been described as an invasive weed around the Indo-Pacific islands region, with an ornamental appearance.
Ruellia affinis, also known as red ruellia or wild petunia, is a vine native to Brazil, which is usually used as an ornamental plant.
Ruellia californica is a species of flowering plant in the Acanthus family commonly known as the rama parda or flor del campo. This evergreen shrub is native to the Baja California peninsula and neighboring coastal Sonora. It is characterized by showy, funnelform blue-purple flowers that bloom throughout the year. There are two subspecies, one endemic to Baja California Sur, and they primarily differ in their presence or absence of hairs on their foliage. This plant is cultivated as an ornamental, and is used to provide a colorful accent to desert and dry gardens.
Ruellia strepens, commonly known as limestone wild petunia, limestone ruellia, smooth wild petunia, or wild petunia is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae, native to warmer parts of the central and eastern United States. A perennial herb, it prefers to grow in moist to mesic, partly shady areas such as streamsides and bottomland forests. In the garden it is hardy to USDA zone 5, and can tolerate nearly full shade.
Ruellia blechum, the green shrimp plant or Browne's blechum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is native to Mexico, the Caribbean, and northern and western South America, and has been introduced to Brazil, Taiwan, many Pacific islands, and the US states of Hawaii, Louisiana and Florida. Its popularity as an ornamental has led to it becoming invasive in places as far flung as Papua New Guinea.
