General Information

COMMON NAMES: Cardinal's Guard GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Caribbean - n.S.America COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Not naturalised; Land, lowlands, gardens SIGNIFICANCE LIST: Ornamental flowers KEY FEATURES: Shrub with long ascending branches with large opposite leaves (to 30x12cm) with dramatic terminal clusters of bright red flowers. The large leaf-like bracts are red; the red corolla tube is curved with a yellow throat, ending with 5 oblong petals. Native of Brazil. An occasional ornamental. SIMILAR SPECIES: Often recorded mistakenly as Ruellia colorata, which is a synonym of Hemigraphis alternata, an very different plant. The present species is rather similar to Ruellia elegans (not presently recorded in the Cook Islands).

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
	-	-						-

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-			-

Pachystachys coccinea (Aubl.)
SYNONYMS: Jacobinia coccinea; Justicia coccinea [sometimes mistakenly as Ruellia colorata]

TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); MAGNOLIOPSIDA (=Dicotyledones); ASTERIDAE; Scrophulariales; ACANTHACEAE

IDENTIFICATION: Shrub with long upward tending branches to 2m. STEM with scattered small spines. LEAVES opposite, dark green above, light below; oval, to 30x12cm, puckered into ridges between large veins; stalk to 2cm. FLOWERS terminal cluster, bright red leaf-like bracts to 8x5cm, tip sharp; corolla curved tube to 6cm, red with yellow interior, with 5 oblong lobes to 2cm, the upper two fused about 25%; stamens and style protruding about 2cm.

Vouchers:
None Recorded.

References:
p.778 Neal - In Gardens of Hawaii
p.809 Hortus 3rd
p.830 Royal Hort. Soc. Index of Garden Plants
p.39 Tropica

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zD02

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