The beautiful plant that I share with you today is a plant that is widely used here in Venezuela, at least in the east of the country, as an ornamental plant. It is commonly known as Britton's Wild Petunia, Mexican Tinkerbell or Mexican Petunia, however at a scientific level it is called Ruellia Simplex.

It belongs to the Acanthaceae family, so it is commonly confused with the wild species Yuquilla de Venezuela Rosada (Ruellia Tuberosa), since its flowers are very similar. However, they differ in that the Ruellia Simplex is a more gleaned plant and its leaves are thin and elongated as small spears.

This perennial species is native to Mexico, the Caribbean and South America, usually forms colonies of unbranched stems that can reach up to 90 cm. high. Although also, a variety exists that gets to reach at the most 30 cm. of height.

Its beautiful trumpet-shaped inflorescences of approximately 7.6 cm in diameter have 5 petals. It is possible to find it in the range of colors from a metallic blue to purple, through the beautiful and delicate pink tone that I show you today.

A peculiarity of this plant is that it presents a photonastic behavior, like the sunflowers, that is to say, its inflorescences respond to the light stimulus. Therefore, its flowers open during the morning and when the sun goes down in the afternoon they close, to open again the next day when the sun comes up.

I hope you enjoyed the publication I brought you today and that it will also be to the liking of my friend @Adalger, since it will be my entry this week for the wonderful contest he organizes, Amazing Nature Contest - January 2021 - #02.

Content and photographs of my intellectual property

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