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Bristly-Sepal Ruspolia
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Bristly-Sepal Ruspolia
E Introduced Photo: Anil Thakur
Common name: Bristly-Sepal Ruspolia
Botanical name: Ruspolia seticalyx    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Eranthemum seticalyx, Pseuderanthemum seticalyx

Bristly-Sepal Ruspolia is an erect evergreen, branched herb, 0.5-1.2 m tall, with cylindrical stem. Leaves, carried on a 1 cm long leaf-stalk, are opposite, simple, ovate-elliptic with pointed tip and more or less fringed with hairs, entire margin, 10-18 cm long and 5-8 cm broad, with prominent nervations. Flowers are borne in 5-30 cm long, branch end panicle, with velvet-hairy axis, bearing several hermaphroditic flowers opening in succession from the bottom to the top. Sepal-cup, about 0.5 cm long, hairless or with tiny white bristles on the sepals. Flowers with red tube, 2-3 cm long, have 5 elliptic petals, 0.8-1.5 cm long, salmon pink to orange red. The fruit is a 3-3.5 cm long capsule containing some seeds almost circular and flat. Bristly-Sepal Ruspolia is native to Africa, cultivated elsewhere.

Identification credit: Anil Thakur Photographed in cultivation in Shimla.

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