Aphelandra squarrosa Nees | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science

Native to:

Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast

Introduced into:

Ascension, Dominican Republic

Homotypic Synonyms

• Ruellia comosa Vell. in Fl. Flumin.: 265 (1829)

Heterotypic Synonyms

• Aphelandra chrysops W.Bull in Nursery Cat. (William Bull) 1887: 7 (1887)
• Aphelandra coccinea Rizzini in Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 8: 324 (1948)
• Aphelandra concinna Rizzini in Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 8: 324 (1948)
• Aphelandra illustrata Jacob-Makoy ex T.Moore & Mast. in Gard. Chron., n.s., 5: 603 (1876)
• Aphelandra leopoldii Van Houtte in Fl. Serres Jard. Eur. 9: 85 (1853)
• Aphelandra louisae Pynaert in Nursery Cat. (Éd. Pynaert - Van Geert) 1888(Suppl.): 4 (1888)
• Aphelandra oostachya Wawra in Oesterr. Bot. Z. 12: 172 (1862)
• Aphelandra squarrosa var. angustifolia Nees in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 9: 89 (1847)
• Aphelandra squarrosa var. citrina Planch. in Fl. Serres Jard. Eur. 8: 161 (1852)
• Aphelandra squarrosa var. laxior Nees in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 9: 89 (1847)
• Aphelandra squarrosa var. leopoldii Van Houtte in Fl. Serres Jard. Eur. 9: 85 (1853)
• Justicia macrophylla Spreng. in Syst. Veg., ed. 16. 1: 79 (1824)

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

• Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
• Fairhurst, W. (2004). Flowering Plants of Ascension island: 1-300. Higham Press, Shirland, Alfreton, England.
• Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 529. MIM, Deurne.

Kew Backbone Distributions

• Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
• Fairhurst, W. (2004). Flowering Plants of Ascension island: 1-300. Higham Press, Shirland, Alfreton, England.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

• Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
• Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
• GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

IPNI - The International Plant Names Index

• • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
• • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
  • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
• • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
  • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
• • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/
• • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
  • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
• • Copyright applied to individual images
• • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0