Justicia

Justicia is a genus of herbs and undershrubs in the Acanthaceae family. The simple leaves are opposite, sometimes with petioles but without stipules.

The inflorescences grow at stem-tips or from leaf axils in variously shaped clusters with variously shaped, often narrow bracts. The calyx is deeply five-, sometimes four-lobed, the lobes similar, covered in hairs that are sometimes glandular.

The two-lipped corolla is also hairy, sometimes glandular. The upper lip is entire or bilobed, centrally channelled where the style is positioned, usually exserted slightly. The lower lip is three-lobed, the lobes oblong or ovate. The tube is shorter than the lobes, bell-shaped to broadly cylindrical.

Two stamens grow from the tube, slightly exserted and bending back as they age. The two-lobed anthers are positioned one above the other, the lower one tailed. The superior ovary is ellipsoid to ovoid housing two ovules per locule.

The fruit is an ellipsoid to club-shaped capsule that does not dehisce when ripe. The spherical seeds are rough with wrinkles, tubercles or hairs.

There are about 420 Justicia species widespread in the warmer regions on earth, 23 of them occurring in southern Africa. Some species feature in traditional medicine.

The plant in picture is Justicia protracta (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2009; Letty, 1962).