Hairyflower Wild Petunia
Ruellia ciliatiflora
Found in lawns, roadsides, mango and avocado plantations, other disturbed areas. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Florida edition What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Florida. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 18%
- Light
- Up to 6 hours of direct sun
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 6 Florida counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Tree plantations and managed pine
Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
Who uses this plant?
11CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including FL
Genus host records with ranges including FL · Ruellia
- Junonia coeniaCommon Buckeye
- Anartia jatrophaeWhite Peacock
- Anthanassa frisiaCuban Crescent
- Anthanassa texanaTexan Crescent
- Junonia neildiMangrove Buckeye
- Junonia zonalisCaribbean Buckeye, Tropical Buckeye, Florida Buckeye, Smoky Buckeye
- Siproeta stelenesMalachite
- Tripudia paraplesiaX
- Tripudia rectangulaWild Petunia Seed Moth, Rectangular Tripudia
- Hileithia aplicalis
Show all 11
- Hileithia differentialis
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimPlant details
- Family
- Acanthaceae
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Florida rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| FL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Atlas of Florida Plants
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications