Justicia sp. Marr Creek (B.Hyland 16069)

Provisional HISPID phrase name.

Flowers and fruits as a herb or shrub about 1 m tall.

Stems 4-angled. Leaf blades about 12-18 x 5-7.5 cm, petioles about 1-4.5 cm long, flat or slightly winged and 3.5 mm wide. Lower surface of the leaf blades sparsely clothed in short, simple, white hairs. Lateral veins about 8 or 9 on each side of the midrib, forming loops just inside the blade margin. First pair of lateral veins initially run parallel to the midrib before departing and make their sinuous way towards the blade margin.

Inflorescences about 3-6 cm long, subtended by green to pale green bracts about 2-2.5 x 1-1.7 cm. Flowers about 15-21 mm diam, each subtended by a bract about 9 x 5 mm. Calyx about 6-8 mm long, lobed at the apex. Both the inner and outer surfaces clothed in short, erect, simple, white hairs. Corolla pale purple, tube about 11.5-26 mm long, lobes about 3-8 x 4-8 mm, apices obtuse, outer surface clothed in very short, simple, erect, white hairs. Stamens 2, staminodes 2, each less than 0.5 mm long. Anthers purplish-pink, about 3-4 x 1.5 mm, filaments about 9 mm long. Pollen grey-purple-tan in colour. Ovary green, about 3 mm long, clothed in translucent glandular hairs. Style about 20 mm long, stigma purple, funnel-shaped and bilobed.

Features not available.

Features not available.

Probably an introduced species, origin unknown at this stage. naturalised and known from two sites in NEQ. Altitudinal range not known, collections to date indicate that this species prefers the coastal lowlands from near sea level to 50 m. Grows in disturbed rain forest or on the margins of gallery rain forest.