''Strobilanthes japonica'' is a
flowering herbaceous
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of t ...
perennial plant from
Asia,
one of around 350 plants of the
genus ''
Strobilanthes
''Strobilanthes'' is a genus of about 350 species of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, mostly native to tropical Asia and Madagascar, but with a few species extending north into temperate regions of Asia. Many species are cultivated for ...
''.
The 20–50 cm
ornamental plant is cultivated in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and blooms in autumn with 1.5 cm purple to white funnel-shaped flowers.
Description
''Strobilanthes japonica'' grows 20–50 cm in height, with thin, heavily-branching stems and purplish-red
glabrous (smooth) branchlets.
Its leaves are simple and opposite, attached by 2–5 cm
petioles, are narrow elliptic or lanceolate in shape, 2–5 cm long and 0.5-1.8 cm wide, and are glabrous and densely covered with
cystoliths.
The plant flowers from August or September to October or November, with 1.5 cm purple to white 5-lobed funnel-shaped
corollas, which produce loculicidal capsules with four ovate seeds.
The species appears similar to ''Strobilanthes tretraspermus'' (Champ. ex Benth.) Druce in China, but ''S. japonica'' has lanceolate leaves and glabrous ovary,
and ''S. tretraspermus'' has a pubescent calyx.
Distribution
Earlier thought to be indigenous to Japan,
''S. japonica'' is now thought to have been introduced from China.
Partial distribution includes regions of Japan (
Shikoku and
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...
)
and regions of China (
Chongqing
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...
,
Guizhou,
Hubei,
Hunan and
Sichuan).
("Note: This information is based on publications available throug
Tropicosand may not represent the entire distribution.")
The plant typically grows at 500–1100 meters altitude, and ''
Flora of China'' notes that it is often found near temples and religious sites.
In Japan, it is "cultivated for ornamental purpose, rarely naturalized on S. Kyushu"), and "wild plants are not known in China," according to ''Flora of Japan''.
Naming
Common names include イセハナビ or 伊勢花火 (Ise-hanabi, meaning "
Ise fireworks") in
Japanese,
日本黄 (RìBenHuáng) in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
,
and 日本马蓝 (RìBenMaLán) in
Mandarin Chinese.
An 1852 French journal transliterated two common Japanese names as "Ise fanabi" and "Iwa kikyau."
There is no common name in English.
Synonyms include ''Acanthopale japonica'' (Thunberg) C. B. Clarke ex S. Moore, ''Championella japonica'' (Thunberg) Bremekamp, ''Ruellia japonica'' Thunberg (from 1784), and ''Strobilanthes bontaiana'' H. Léveillé.
Conservation status
''Strobilanthes japonica'' was listed as Vulnerable in the
1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q11086777
japonica
Flora of Chongqing
Flora of Guizhou
Flora of Hubei
Flora of Hunan
Flora of Sichuan
Flora of Japan