Species of flowering plant
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Ruellia noctiflora, the nightflowering wild petunia, is a herbaceous perennial found along the Gulf coast. Both its specific and common names derive from its habit of nocturnal flowering. In spite of the common name it is in a different family from the garden petunia.
It is considered endangered in Florida.
Description.
The plant grows to with oval, pointed, usually stalkless leaves up to long borne in pairs on thin, hairy, purplish stems. It bears white, trumpet-shaped, five-petalled flowers long and across; these open at night and fall by mid-morning, and are pollinated by hawk moths, whose long proboscises allow them to reach the nectar held at the base of the flower. The resulting fruit is a capsule long with the long style retained, resting among the five long spikey sepals. When ripe it splits in half longitudinally, discharging the seed. Unusually for the genus no cleistogamous flowers are formed.
Habitat.
"R. noctiflora" is generally a wetlands plant and prefers longleaf pine savanna. The principal threats to it (besides outright habitat destruction) are suppression of the fires needed to clear out the understory, and competition from invasive species, particularly cogon grass.
Hybridization studies with other North American "Ruellia" species suggest a close relationship with "Ruellia caroliniensis", which grows across the United States southeast.
References.
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