ACANTHUS FAMILY 



ACANTHACEAE 



SMOOTH RUELLIA 



Ruellia strepens L. 



Unlike the Water Willow, the Smooth Ruellia grows in dry 

 places and rich soil in woods, along roadsides or other open 

 places from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and south to Florida and 



Texas. It is a nearly smooth 

 perennial herb. The slender 

 stem is 4-sided, 1-4 feet 

 high and usually branched. 

 The leaves are 3-6 inches 

 long and petioled. 



Either solitary flowers or 

 several together in the axils 

 of leaves are produced from 

 June to September. Some- 

 times some of the flowers^ 

 are very small and do not 

 open but are self-pollinated 

 in the bud and produce seeds. 

 The calyx of the ordinary 

 flower is 5-parted; the co- 

 rolla is blue and slightly ir- 

 regular. Four stamens are 

 attached to the corolla tube. 

 The capsule is club shaped 

 and contains 6-20 seeds 

 with mucilaginous coats. 



The Hairy Ruellia, Ruellia 

 ciliosa Pursh, is covered with 

 soft whitish hairs. The oval or oblong leaves are nearly sessile and 

 smaller than in the smooth species. The corolla tube is fully twice the 

 length of the calyx lobes and the throat is rather short. Sometimes 

 the 2 species are cross-pollinated and hybrids result. 



The record for this genus in Illinois is completed by the Stalked 

 Ruellia, Ruellia pedunculata Torr., which occurs in dry rocky hills 

 of the extreme south. It grows up to 1)4. feet, is much branched and 

 bearing generally long-pointed, ovate or ovate-lanceolate leaves. The 

 axillary inflorescence of 1-3 flowers is supported by a long slender 

 peduncle at whose summit are 2 leaflike bracts subtending the i or 

 more similarly bracted pedicels. 



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