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Asystasia gangetica
Also called Ganges Primrose, Primrose, Asian Coromandel, Asystasia, Creeping Foxglove, Philippine Violet
In Singapore: Coromandel, Chinese Violet, Creeping Foxglove, Ganges Primrose, Common Asystasia, 十万错花, Variegated Ganges Primrose, White Ganges Bluebell (Grown in Singapore)
Chinese violet is a spreading, creeping herb in the Acanthus family that roots at its stem nodes and makes a fast groundcover in warm climates. It is grown mainly outdoors in the tropics and is naturalized as a weed in some regions, so keep its spread in check.
Asystasia gangetica is a species of plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is commonly known as the Chinese violet, coromandel or creeping foxglove. In South Africa this plant may simply be called asystasia.
Widespread throughout the Old World Tropics, and introduced into tropical Americas and Hawaii, where it has become naturalized. Both subspecies of this plant have been introduced to Australia where A. g. micrantha is on the National Environmental Alert List and must be reported when found. The original range of the subspecies is unclear, but it is likely that A. g. gangetica was limited to Asia, and A. g. micrantha was limited to Africa.
In some parts of Africa, the leaves are eaten as a vegetable and used as an herbal remedy in traditional African medicine. The leaves are used in many parts of Nigeria as a traditional African medicine for the management of asthma. It is also used as an ornamental plant.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asystasia gangetica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
