3. Aphelandra R. Brown, Prodr. Fl. Nov. Hall. 475. 1810. Nees in DC., Prodr. 11: 295. 1847; Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 2: 1102. 1862; Wasshausen in Smithsonian Contr. Bot. No. 18. 1975.
KAMAL AKHTAR MALIK & ABDUL GHAFOOR
Erect shrubs or basally woody herbs. Leaves petiolate, usually large, oblong to elliptic, entire, spinose-dentate, crenate or sometimes sinuately lobed, cystoliths absent. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary spike. Flowers sessile, large, red, yellow, orange or white; bracts large, showy, ovate to lanceolate, entire, dentate or ciliate, imbricate; bracteoles akin to calyx lobes or reduced. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, lobes ± equal or the posterior lobe broader, lanceolate. Corolla tube straight or incurved, the limb 2-lipped, the upper lip erect, shallowly 2-lobed or entire, the lower lip reflexed or patent, 3-lobed. Stamens 4, all fertile, ± exserted or shorter than the upper lip; anthers monothecous, dorsifixed, hairy at apex, muticous. Ovary bilocular, each locule biovulate; style long, stigma obtuse or shallowly 2-fid. Capsule oblong-clavate, slightly contracted at base. Seeds 4, compressed, ± orbicular silky hairy.
A large genus of c. 200 species, distributed in Tropics of America. Represented in Pakistan by the following cultivated species.
