Dianthera incerta
Dianthera incerta is a species of perennial herb in the Acanthus family commonly known as the Cape tube-tongue or chuparrosa. D. incerta is characterized by solitary, pink, two-lipped tubular flowers up to long that emerge from the leaf axils. It is endemic to the Cape region of Baja California Sur, and was formerly placed within Justicia. It is most similar to other species formerly placed in Siphonoglossa, such as Dianthera sessilis of the West Indies and South America.
Description
Dianthera incerta is a perennial herb that grows to tall. The young stems are square-shaped and may be furrowed. The foliage, stems, flowers and fruits are covered in pubescent, non-glandular hairs. The leaves are subsessile to petiolate, with the petioles up to long, eventually reducing to stubs along the stem once the leaves have fallen. The leaves are ovate and entire, measuring long by wide. The tip of the leaf is acute to acuminate, while the base of the leaf is acute to cordate to truncate.Flowering and fruiting is from September to December and April to May. The inflorescence is a dichasia emerging from the axils of the leaves, usually bearing a solitary flower. The dichasia is subsessile to sessile, with a short peduncle only up to long. The bracteoles are sessile and reach up to long. The flowers are sessile, and have a 4-lobed calyx long. The two-lipped corolla is a rose-pink with a white and darker-pink crow's-foot shaped pattern on the spreading lower lip. The corolla measures up to long, and the corolla tube long.
The fruit is a capsule long, held on a stipe up to long. There are 4 seeds, each up to long, white in immaturity, turning brown when mature.