| General Information |
| Distribution | Native to Mexico.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Midway, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Maui. First collected 1930, St. John 10515 (BISH).
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| Habitat | In Hawai`i cultivated as an ornamental but easily escaping, now naturalized and often found in dry habitats such as cracks in sidewalks and disturbed, shaded gulch bottoms. |
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Habit
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Erect perennial herbs; lower stems sometimes becoming somewhat woody, 0.5-1 m long.
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Leaves
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Leaves linear elliptic to linear lanceolate, 8-22 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide, glabrate, petioles 10-24 mm long.
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Flowers
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Flowers in cymose panicles, each flower subtended by 2 linear bracts 3-7 mm long; calyx lobes 5, linear, 8-12 mm long; corolla lavender, the throat purple, 4-4.5 cm long.
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Fruit
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Capsules ellipsoid, 2-2.5 cm long, glabrous.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 34.
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Notes
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This species is sometimes confused with Ruellia malacosperma Greenm., which does not occur in Hawai`i, and differs from R. brittoniana in having shorter lanceolate leaves and pilose pubescence.
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