''Ruellia affinis'', also known as red ruellia or wild petunia, is a

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

native to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, which is usually used as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

Description

Growing to around 1–1.2 metres tall in a bright shady area, the plant is a rambling shrub that features short- petioled elliptic leaves that are 5 inches in length. It is a winter-bloomer with showy, 2-inch wide scarlet-coloured trumpet flowers, in addition to being a vine, which is unusual for a ruellia species.

Habitat

The species is endemic to

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

and Southeast regions of Brazil in the states of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

and Espírito Santo. The species is found in the phytogeographic domain of the

Atlantic forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

, in regions with rain forest vegetation.Floristics of flowering plants from the understory of atlantic remnants in Bahia, Brazil
Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. July 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2022.

Gallery

Ruellia affinis (Nees) Lindau (8786329689).jpg, Leaf detail Ruellia affinis (Nees) Lindau (8786345339).jpg, Flower Ruellia affinis (Nees) Lindau (8796933606).jpg, Habit Ruellia affinis (Nees) Lindau (15539163648).jpg, Abaxial side of leaf

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17681030 affinis Flora of Brazil Plants described in 1885 Garden plants of South America Vines