Botanical name: Rostellularia vahliana    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Justicia vahlii, Justicia vahliana, Justicia diffusa var. vahlii

Indian Justicia is an erect herb, up to 45 cm, much branched, basally woody, with hairless or velvet-hairy, 4-angled branches. Leaves with 1-4 mm long leaf-stalk, are linear or lanceshaped to elliptic-lanceshaped, 2.5-6 cm x 5-15 mm, sparsely hairy on both sides, entire, somewhat pointed. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils or at branch-ends, in dense spikes 2.5-15 cm long, about 5-10 mm across. Flowers are mostly purple, about 1 cm long, stalkless; bracts narrowly ovate, 5-6 mm x about 2 mm, with membranus fringed with hairs margins; bracteoles linear-lanceshaped, smaller than the sepal-cup, hairy. Sepal-cup is 4-lobed nearly to the base, sepals lanceshaped, 5-6 mm long nearly equal, pointed, scarious and fringed with hairsd on margins. Flower tube is funnel-shaped, about 4 mm long, velvet-hairy outside; upper, patent, 3-lobed. Capsules are oblong, about 5 mm long, 4-angled, hairy towards the tip, with a short sharp point. Indian Justicia is found in India and Pakistan.

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The flower labeled Indian Justicia is ...