Common name: Chinese Violet, Ganges Primrose, Philippine Violet, Creeping Foxglove
Asystasia gangetica (L.) T.Anderson APNI* Synonyms: Asystasia gangetica (complex) (L.) T.Anderson APNI*
Description: Lightly pubescent to glabrous perennial herb, stems more or less erect and shrub-like (subsp. gangetica) or procumbent, rooting at the nodes, becoming mat-like and smothering other vegetation (subsp. micrantha).
Leaves 3–8 cm long, ovate to elliptic, thin-textured, bright green.
Flowers borne in one-sided racemes to 10 cm long; corolla tubular-campanulate, exceeding calyx lobes, 3–4 cm long (subsp. gangetica) or up to 2.5 cm (subsp. micrantha), lobes flaring (subsp. gangetica) to more or less reflexed (subsp. micrantha), blue, mauve, yellow, white, often yellow in throat, the mid lower lobe sometimes darker in colour (subsp. gangetica) or the flower white with the middle lobe usually with two lines of purple stripes (subsp. micrantha).
Fruit 2.5 cm long.
Distribution and occurrence: A. gangetica consists of two subspecies, subsp. gangetica from the Indian subcontinent and subsp. micrantha from Africa. The subsp. gangetica has been known in cultivation in northern Qld since the early 1900s and is now recorded as naturalised in that state; cultivated collections are also recorded from NSW, northern WA, and NT, and it is recorded as naturalised in WA and NT but not NSW. Naturalised populations of subsp. micrantha occur in Qld and NSW (in NSW only in the North Coast region).
NSW subdivisions: *NC
Other Australian states: *Qld *W.A. *N.T.
Of two subspecies, only A. gangetica subsp. micrantha (Nees) Ensermu has been recorded in the wild in NSW. See also NSW WeedWise profile.
Text by J. Everett and D. Crayn (2001); edited KL Wilson (May 2009, December 2023), R.M. Barker and P. Lu-Irving (Oct. 2024) Taxon concept: R.M. Barker (Flora of Australia, Acanthaceae manuscript)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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