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Pseuderanthemum variabile
Also called Love flower, Pastel Flower
Night and afternoon (Pseuderanthemum variabile) is a low creeping subshrub from eastern Australia, New Caledonia and Papua New Guirea, prized for its highly variable mottled foliage. It grows best as a shade-loving groundcover in warm, humid conditions.
Pseuderanthemum variabile, commonly known as pastel flower or love flower in its native range, or night and afternoon in the US, is a small perennial herb in the family Acanthaceae which is native to Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. It can be an unwelcome nuisance in orchid nurseries in Australia.
It is an attractive addition to gardens, and can be used as a feature, a ground cover, or a gap filler in a rockery. It is easily grown from seed or cuttings.
In Australia, it is reported by some orchid nurseries as a pest, as it often appears in pots and may be difficult to eradicate.
This species is found in Papua New Guinea, eastern parts of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and in New Caledonia. It may occupy a number of forest types in Australia, most often rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest, but also woodlands, open forest and deciduous vine thickets.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pseuderanthemum variabile 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.
