Ruellia prostrataPoir.

prostrate wild petunia

WFO wfo-0000400882 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. a Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-14 / obs. 172645868
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by মহা বিদ্রোহী BUT রণ ক্লান্ত
fig. b মহা বিদ্রোহী BUT রণ ক্লান্ত, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157654154
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Dilrukshan Priyantha Wijesinghe
fig. c Dilrukshan Priyantha Wijesinghe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 6953684
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Shaan Aroeste
fig. d Shaan Aroeste, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184451210
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Denis Bastianelli
fig. e Denis Bastianelli, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159735960
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Ramesh Shenai Jr.
fig. f Ramesh Shenai Jr., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153068497
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Aravinth
fig. g Aravinth, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 127645679
Ruellia prostrata, photographed by Sabarni Sarker
fig. h Sabarni Sarker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 97231672

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Ruellia prostrata is native: Angola, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bangladesh, Christmas I., India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Malaya, Myanmar, New Guinea, Pakistan, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. AngolaBotswanaCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemenBangladeshIndiaJawaMalayaMyanmarNew GuineaPakistanSolomon Is.Sri LankaNew Caledonia Christmas I.Laccadive Is.VanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Ruellia prostrata, 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
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Bangladesh BAN ASIA-TROPICAL
Christmas I. XMS
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM
New Caledonia NWC PACIFIC
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL

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 87 in flower of 87 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Ruellia prostrata 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. 87 of 87 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 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 16 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.

  • Dipteracanthus dejectus Nees
  • Dipteracanthus genduanus Schweinf.
  • Dipteracanthus prostratus (Poir.) Nees
  • Ruellia deccanensis J.Graham
  • Ruellia genduana (Schweinf.) C.B.Clarke
  • Ruellia methia Buch.-Ham. ex Wall.
  • Ruellia nubica Delile
  • Ruellia octaviensis P.G.Mey.
  • Ruellia otaviensis P.G.Mey.
  • Ruellia pallida Willd. ex Nees
  • Ruellia patula var. prostrata (Poir.) Chiov.
  • Ruellia prostrata var. dejecta (Nees) C.B.Clarke
  • Ruellia repens Wall.
  • Ruellia ringens Roxb.
  • Ruellia rivularis (Benoist) Boivin ex Benoist
  • Ruellia wightiana Wall.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.