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Mexican ruellia (Ruellia simplex)

Dlium Mexican ruellia (Ruellia simplex)

Mexican ruellia (Ruellia simplex) is a species of plant in the Acanthaceae, an evergreen perennial, 1 meter tall, forming a colony of stalks with lance-shaped leaves. The leaves are narrowly elongated, 6-30 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, a main vein in the middle with many small pinnate veins.

The flowers are metallic blue to purple, trumpet-shaped with a corolla 5.1 cm wide, 6 cm long, five-lobed. There is a dwarf variety that is only 30 cm tall. This plant is used to treat itching, coughs and diabetes.



TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Subfamily: Acanthoideae
Tribe: Ruellieae
Subtribe: Ruelliinae
Genus: Ruellia Plum. ex L. in Sp. Pl.: 634 (1753)
Section: Ruellia
Species: Ruellia simplex C.Wright in Anales Acad. Ci. Méd. Habana 6: 321 (1870)

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Arrhostoxylum microphyllum Nees in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 9: 61 (1847)
Cryphiacanthus angustifolius Nees in A.P.de Candolle, Prodr. 11: 199 (1847)
Ruellia angustifolia (Nees) Lindau in H.G.A.Engler & K.A.E.Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(3b): 311 (1895)
Ruellia brittoniana Leonard in J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 31: 96 (1941)
Ruellia coerulea Morong in Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 7: 193 (1893)
Ruellia ignorantiae Herter in Revista Sudamer. Bot. 4: 193 (1937)
Ruellia longipes Urb. in Symb. Antill. 9: 129 (1923)
Ruellia malacosperma Greenm. in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 34: 572 (1899)
Ruellia microphylla (Nees) Lindau in Beibl. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 48: 16 (1894)
Ruellia spectabilis Britton in Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 7: 192 (1893)
Ruellia tweedieana Griseb. in Abh. Königl. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen 24: 259 (1879)

PUBLICATIONS

Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.

Arbo, M.M. & al. (2018). Flora Argentina. Flora vascular de la República Argentina 20(1): 1-488. INTA, IMBIV & IBODA.

Hammel, B.E., Grayum, M.H., Herrera, C. & Zamora, N. (eds.) (2020). Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 4(1): 1-904. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Marchioretto, M.S., Pires da Silva, V.R.S. & Parode, M.F. (2015). A família Acanthaceae Juss. no Rio Grande do Sul. Pesquisas: Botanica 68: 7-82.

Murugan, C., Singh, L.J., Prabhu, S. & Sathiyaseelan, R. (2014). The genus Ruellia L. (Acanthaceae) in Andaman and Nicobar islands. Indian Journal of Forestry 37: 425-428.

Nurtjahya, E. & al. (2026). Flowering Plants of Bangka Island: Native and Introduced. Acta Botanica Hungarica 68: 127-156.

Paña-Chocarro, M.C., Espada-Mateos, C., Vera, M., Céspedes, G. & Knapp, S. (2010). Updated checklist of vascular plants of the Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve (Reserva Natural del Bosque Mbaracayú), Paraguay. Phytotaxa 12: 1-224.

Rajbhandari, K.R., Rai, S.K. & Chhetri, R. (2022). A Handbook of the Flowering Plants of Nepal 4: 1-522. Department of Plant Resources, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Tanaka, N. & al. (2020). Vascular plants collected from Eastern Provinces, the Solomon islands. Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science, Series B (Botany) 46: 145-175.

Villaseñor, J.L. (2016). Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 87: 559-902.

Won, H. & al. (2024). New records of flowering plants for the flora of Laos. Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy 54: 290-298.

Zuloaga, F.O., Morrone, O. , Belgrano, M.J., Marticorena, C. & Marchesi, E. (eds.) (2008). Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Cono Sur. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 107: 1-3348. Missouri Botanical Garden.

VERNACULAR NAME

Aceh: Meuh ungu, Bungong ungu
Australia: Bluebell
Bali: Emas ungu, Sekar ungu
Chinese (simplified): 蓝花草 - 狭叶翠芦莉 - 翠芦莉
Chinese (traditional): 人字草 - 翠蘆莉 - 紫花蘆利草 - 翠蘆莉 - 人字草 - 蘭花草
English: Mexican ruellia, Purple golden, Bluebell, Blue-bells, Britton's wild petunia, Mexican petunia, Mexican bluebell, Britton's wild petunia, Purple showers, Desert petunia, Florida Bluebells, Spanish ladies
Filipino: Lila ginto
French: Pétunia mexicain
German: Mexikanische Petunie
Hong Kong: 紫花蘆利草 - 翠蘆莉 - 人字草
Indonesia: Kencana ungu, Ungu keemasan, Corong ungu, Lonceng ungu
Japanese: ヤナギバルイラソウ
Java: Kencono wungu, Torong wungu
Macao: 紫花蘆利草 - 翠蘆莉 - 人字草
Madura: Kembang ungu
Makassar: Ungu emas
Minang: Ungu ameh, Bungo ungu
PNG: Pepol gol
Portuguese: Ruélia-azul
Russian: Руэллия простая
Slovak: Vencovník obyčajný
Spanish: Petunia mexicana, Té negro
Sunda: Kembang wungu
Taiwan: 翠蘆莉
Thai: สีม่วงทอง
Turkish: Meksika petunyası
Ukrainian: Руелія проста
Vietnam: Màu tím vàng

Aryo Bandoro
Dlium TheDlium
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