Ruellia

Ruellia
Ruellia tuberosa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Subfamily: Acanthoideae
Tribe: Ruellieae
Genus: Ruellia
L.[1]
Species

Many, see text

Synonyms[2]
List
    • Alvarezia Pav. ex Nees
    • Aphragmia Nees
    • Aporuellia C.B.Clarke
    • Arrhostoxylum Mart. ex Nees
    • Benoicanthus Heine A.Raynal
    • Blechum P.Browne
    • Copioglossa Miers
    • Cryphiacanthus Nees
    • Cyrtacanthus Mart. ex Nees
    • Dipteracanthus Nees
    • Dizygandra Meisn.
    • Endosiphon T.Anderson ex Benth. Hook.f.
    • Eurychanes Nees
    • Eusiphon Benoist
    • Fabria E.Mey.
    • Gymnacanthus Nees
    • Gymnacanthus Oerst.
    • Holtzendorffia Klotzsch H.Karst. ex Nees
    • Larysacanthus Oerst.
    • Lychniothyrsus Lindau
    • Micraea Miers
    • Neowedia Schrad.
    • Nothoruellia Bremek. Nann.-Bremek.
    • Ophthalmacanthus Nees
    • Pattersonia J.F.Gmel.
    • Pentstemonacanthus Nees
    • Pseudoruellia Benoist
    • Salpingacanthus S.Moore
    • Sclerocalyx Nees
    • Scorodoxylum Nees
    • Siphonacanthus Nees
    • Solaenacanthus Oerst.
    • Spirostigma Nees
    • Stemonacanthus Nees
    • Stenoschista Bremek.
    • Stephanophysum Pohl
    • Tacoanthus Baill.
    • Tremacanthus S.Moore
    • Ulleria Bremek.

Ruellia is a genus of flowering plants commonly known as ruellias or wild petunias.[3] 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.[4]

Numerous formerly independent genera are nowadays considered synonymous with Ruellia, including Blechum, Eusiphon, and Ulleria.[2] Acanthopale and Polylychnis are considered a distinct genera.

Ruellias are popular ornamental plants. Some are used as medicinal plants, but many are known or suspected to be poisonous. Their leaves are food for the caterpillars of several Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), typically Nymphalinae and in particular members of their tribe Junoniini, such as the larvae of the banded peacock (Anartia fatima). Nymphalinae using Ruellia as host plants include the common buckeye (Junonia coenia), recorded on R. nodiflora, the lemon pansy (Junonia lemonias), recorded on R. tuberosa, and the malachite butterfly (Siproeta stelenes) and Australian lurcher (Yoma sabina), which are recorded on several species.

Ruellia elegans
Bell weed (Ruellia prostrata)
Ruellia dipteracanthus
  1. ^ "Genus: Ruellia L." Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2009-01-23. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  2. ^ a b "Ruellia Plum. ex L." Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Ruellia". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  4. ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.