Justicia petiolaris

Justicia petiolaris, commonly known as the blue justicia, is a perennial, sometimes a soft shrub that grows to heights from 10 cm to 1 m.

The species distribution is in the east of South Africa, from the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga and Limpopo, as well as in tropical countries to the north in Africa.

The habitat is woodland, dry forest margins, and coastal scrub, often in semi-shade. The habitat populations of the two recognised South African subspecies, subsp. bowiei (Eastern Cape) and subsp. petiolaris (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo), are deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

Some of the justicias are used in traditional medicine (Pooley, et al, 2025; Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; https://pza.org; https://redlist.sanbi.org).