Native to Java.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
O`ahu, Moloka`i, Maui. First collected 1944, Neal s.n. (BISH).
Habitat
In Hawai`i a weed of urban areas in Honolulu, O`ahu
Habit
Prostrate perennial herbs; stems often rooting at the nodes.
Leaves
Leaves green, lower surface conspicuously paler, ovate, 2-10 cm long, (0.9-)1.5-4.5 cm wide, sparsely strigose, especially on upper surface, petioles 5-30 mm long.
Flowers
Flowers solitary in the leaf axils, each one subtended by oblanceolate to ovate bracts 15-23 mm long; calyx lobes 5, linear, 6-10 mm long; corolla violet blue to occasionally nearly white, 2.4-3.2 cm long, the lobes slightly spreading.
Fruit
Capsules clavate, 1.5-2 cm long, densely puberulent.
Chromosomes
2n = 34, 44.
Notes
This species previously was misidentified in Hawai`i as Ruellia repens L., which differs from R. prostrata in its narrowly lanceolate to linear lanceolate leaves and capsules only 1.2-1.5 cm long. It does not appear to be naturalized in Hawai`i.
