Acanthaceae
Acanthaceae image
Sue Carnahan
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Desert Research Learning Center, Botany Program
Herbs, sometimes vines, shrubs or trees, with opposite leaves, simple, pinnate venation, exstipulate. Variable inflorescences, with bilateral flowers, often with large, colorful bracts and bracteoles; 5 connate sepals/5 connate petals, 4 didynamous stamens, with filaments adnate to corolla. Superior ovary, 2 fused carpels, with axile placentation. Fruit an explosively dehiscent capsule with a funicle that is modified into a retinacula (a hook-shaped stalk that flings seed out).
Species within checklist: Flora of Federal Protected Areas, Desert West
Anisacanthus linearis
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Anisacanthus puberulus
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Anisacanthus thurberi
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Carlowrightia arizonica
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Carlowrightia linearifolia
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Carlowrightia parviflora
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Carlowrightia serpyllifolia
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Carlowrightia texana
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Dicliptera brachiata
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Dicliptera resupinata
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Dyschoriste decumbens
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Dyschoriste hirsutissima
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Dyschoriste linearis
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Dyschoriste schiedeana
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Elytraria imbricata
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Justicia americana
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Justicia californica
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Justicia candicans
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Justicia longii
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Justicia ovata
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Justicia pilosella
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Justicia warnockii
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Ruellia caroliniensis
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Ruellia ciliatiflora
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Ruellia drummondiana
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Ruellia humilis
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Ruellia malacosperma
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Ruellia metziae
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Ruellia nudiflora
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Ruellia occidentalis
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Ruellia parryi
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Ruellia pedunculata
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Ruellia simplex
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Ruellia strepens
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Siphonoglossa longiflora
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Siphonoglossa pilosella
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Stenandrium barbatum
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Tetramerium nervosum
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