Syn.: Belantheria belvisiana Nees, Brillantaisia alata T. Anderson ex Oliv., Brillantaisia bauchiensis Hutch. et Dalziel, Brillantaisia dewevrei De Wild. et T. Durand, Brillantaisia leonensis Burkill, Brillantaisia mahoni C. B. Clarke, Brillantaisia nitens Lindau, Brillantaisia nyanzarum Burkill, Brillantaisia patula T. Anderson, Brillantaisia salviiflora Lindau
Family: Acanthaceae Juss.
Distribution: Tropical African species widespread in the forest regions of western and central Africa, westward to Guinea and Sierra Leone, eastward to South Sudan and southward to northern Angola. In Réunion and Mauritius it is locally naturalized.
Ecology: Grows in tropical forests, on river banks, in elevations from (750–)900 to 1850 m.
Description: Perennial or shrubby herb. Stems up to 2 m tall, erect, glabrous to puberulous. Leaves petiolate, ovate-cordiform, 11–28 × 6–20 cm, apex acuminate, base cuneate to cordate, margin crenate-dentate. Panicle (5–)10–45 cm long, bracts ovate to elliptic or obovate, green to purplish, calyx dark purple, lobes linear-lanceolate, corolla (25–)30–53 mm long, with purple to dark purple glandular hairs, pale to deep mauve, pale to deep purple or blue to dark blue with white throat, tube 7–14 mm long; lower lip 20–38 mm long, lobes 2–5 mm long, ovate. Fruit is a capsule, (17–)20–35 mm long.
These images were taken in Mauritius, Eureka (by Jindřiška Vančurová, 16. 10. 2012).
