Eranthemum L.

Greek eros — love, anthemon — flower.

Perennial herbs and shrubs. Leaves entire. Flower clusters sometimes branched, the bracts large and showy. Sepals with 5 long lobes but overlapped by the bracts. Flower tube narrow and curved, with 5 unequal, spreading petal lobes. Fruit a capsule containing several seeds.

Cultivated as indoor plants for their ornamental foliage and blue flowers.

Generally by softwood cuttings; stamens 2, attached in the throat and not protruding from the flower.

Flowers not 2-lipped, but with showy, long bracts and bright blue flowers.

About 30 species from tropical Asia.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Acanthaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image
kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Asteranae
order      Lamiales
family       Acanthaceae
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
species         Eranthemum pulchellum AndrĂ©