About Ruellia simplex C.Wright
Ruellia simplex C.Wright is an evergreen perennial that grows 3 feet (0.91 meters) tall, forming colonies of stalks. Its leaves are lance-shaped, measuring 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) long and 0.5 to 0.75 inches (1.3 to 1.9 cm) wide. The trumpet-shaped flowers range from metallic blue to purple, with a five-lobed corolla about 2 inches (5.1 cm) wide. A dwarf variety of this species only grows 1 foot (0.30 m) tall. Ruellia simplex is native to Mexico, the West Indies, western Bolivia, southwestern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina. It has been widely used as an ornamental plant, and has escaped from cultivation in the United States, Australia, parts of Asia, and several Pacific Islands. It is one of the most common landscape plants in Dubai, because it is drought-tolerant. It has become invasive in some of these areas where it has escaped cultivation, forming dense, single-species vegetation stands that threaten native plants. It grows mainly in wet locations such as ditches, pond edges, lakesides and marshes, but it can also survive in drier conditions.
