Ruellia lacteaCav.

WFO wfo-0001044189 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ruellia lactea, photographed by Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez
fig. a Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-06-22 / obs. 138188011
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña
fig. b Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 80947051
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Carlos Martorell
fig. c Carlos Martorell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 53930535
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Alan Rockefeller
fig. d Alan Rockefeller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 48525471
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Tereso Hernández Morales
fig. e Tereso Hernández Morales, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 6894438
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. f Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 18694765
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña
fig. g Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 84893281
Ruellia lactea, photographed by Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña
fig. h Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 84893453

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 6 botanical countries

Regions where Ruellia lactea is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico Southwest
Native distribution of Ruellia lactea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 15 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cryphiacanthus lacteus (Cav.) Nees
  • Cryphiacanthus lacteus var. acaulis Nees
  • Cryphiacanthus macrosiphon Nees
  • Dipteracanthus lacteus (Cav.) C.Presl
  • Ruellia abbreviata D.N.Gibson
  • Ruellia divaricata Hoffmanns.
  • Ruellia hispida DC. ex Nees
  • Ruellia hoffmannseggii Steud.
  • Ruellia lactea var. acaulis (Nees) Hemsl.
  • Ruellia longituba D.N.Gibson
  • Ruellia macrosiphon Lindau
  • Ruellia ovata Willd. ex Nees
  • Ruellia prostrata Pav. ex Nees
  • Ruellia sessilis Balb. ex Nees
  • Ruellia verticillata Pav. ex Nees

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.