Flora Zambesiaca: Habit
Perennial or shrubby herb to 1 m; cystoliths present.
Leaves
Leaves ovate, apex acute, base cuneate.
Flowers
Flowers in subsessile or shortly pedunculate racemoid cymes from upper axils; bracts imbricate, to 2 cm long, red to purple or green, ovate, puberulous and ciliate; bracteoles similar to bracts.
Calyx
Calyx deeply divided into 5 lanceolate acute puberulous lobes to 5 mm long.
Corolla
Corolla white with reddish purple stripes on lower lip or whole lower lip red, to 3 cm long (along upper lip), with a hooded 2-lobed upper lip and spreading 3-lobed lower lip.
Stamens
Stamens 2, held under upper lip; anthers bithecous, thecae at different height, both with flat white basal appendage.
Distribution
Native of tropical America. Widely cultivated in all tropical and subtropical regions and as a pot plant in temperate regions.
Vernacular
Shrimp Plant.