Ruellia patulaJacq.

WFO wfo-0000401089 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ruellia patula, photographed by Presha Soogrim
fig. a Presha Soogrim, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-13 / obs. 177148093
Ruellia patula, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. b Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125194435
Ruellia patula, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. c Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 105969180
Ruellia patula, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. d Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101880671
Ruellia patula, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. e Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 35105192
Ruellia patula, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. f Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 15703759
Ruellia patula, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. g Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125177318
Ruellia patula, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. h Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189099739

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Ruellia patula is native: Angola, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam AngolaBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicChadDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemenBangladeshIndiaMyanmarPakistanSri LankaVietnam Andaman Is.
Native distribution of Ruellia patula, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
India IND
Myanmar MYA
Pakistan PAK
Sri Lanka SRL
Vietnam VIE
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 36 in flower of 36 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Ruellia patula observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 36 of 36 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 27 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.

  • Barleria sudanica (Schweinf.) Lindau
  • Dipteracanthus erectus Nees
  • Dipteracanthus matutinus C.Presl
  • Dipteracanthus ocymoides C.Presl
  • Dipteracanthus pallidus Nees
  • Dipteracanthus patulus (Jacq.) Nees
  • Dipteracanthus patulus var. obtusior Nees
  • Dipteracanthus sudanicus Schweinf.
  • Petalidium patulum (Jacq.) Dalzell & A.Gibson
  • Ruellia aromatica Roxb. ex Nees
  • Ruellia axillaris Wall. ex Nees
  • Ruellia bracteophylla Chiov.
  • Ruellia concavifolia Ortega
  • Ruellia erecta B.Heyne ex Roth
  • Ruellia erecta var. elongata Roth
  • Ruellia gongodes Lindau
  • Ruellia huttonii T.Anderson
  • Ruellia ibbensis Lindau
  • Ruellia matutina Hochst. & Steud. ex C.Presl
  • Ruellia ocymoides Cav.
  • Ruellia ovata Gouan ex Nees
  • Ruellia pallida Vahl
  • Ruellia patula var. dumicola Chiov.
  • Ruellia patula var. erythraea A.Terracc.

and 3 more.

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.