A common species of a large chunk of South America. Widespread. Emblematic of the pedunculate species in the “Physiruellia” clade. In the one of the photos, note the woody capsule (fruit) with modified funiculi (hooks) that aid in seed dispersal when the fruit explodes, as all Acanths in the proper sense do.

Update(Sep 2016): First described from Rio de Janeiro in 1831, this species occurs in a variety of both tropical and subtropical sites. We saw this species many times as we traveled through the seasonally dry forests of the Beni region of Bolivia. Incredibly, this species most likely is one of the parents of another Ruellia we observed in the same location (Tripp 5971), the result of hybridization with Ruellia puri.

Wild collected, Bolivia, Tripp #5970, 5976, 6009 w/ Luján and Clark; Photos by Manuel Luján; Blog post by Dina Clark