Gaudy Gaudy Gaudy! Carrie Kiel would love the flowers of this species, which sit atop vegetative portions of a rare growth form (vining) in the genus. One must really and truly appreciate the epithet. ‘affinis’. Hey – it’s got affinity to something, after all…!

Update (Aug 2016): As it turns out, Ruellia affinis is rather common in mesic forests of eastern Brazil. It really is a vine, and it really does looks strange in the field, but I will happily accept this species as a Ruellia. Hey – the genus does more interesting things morphologically than does my own…

I still do not know what lineage this plant belongs to – a classic rogue taxon in phylogenetic speak – perhaps RADseq data will soon resolve…

Wild collected, Brazil, Erin Tripp #5887 & #5889 w/ Nico Medina, Cíntia Kameyama (COLO); Photos by Cíntia Kameyama, Erin Tripp