M. Hedrén(2006) Justicia. Flora of Somalia 3:407-420.

Plants annual or perennial herbs, sometimes with a woody rootstock; stems to 1+ m tall, erect to ascending, old stems greyish with irregularly fissured bark, young stems greenish to greyish with a more or less dense indumentum of appressed to spreading hairs up to 0.5(-0.8) mm long. Leaves: petioles 5-35 mm long; blades  45-60 mm long, 18-42 mm wide, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, base attenuate to truncate, tip obtuse to acute, surfaces with sparse to dense indumentum of erect to antrose hairs especialy over the veins, hairs up to 0.6 mm long. Inflorescences terminal, lax to dense and spikelike, of opposite, 3(-5)-flowered contracted, bracteate cymes; bracts 9-10 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, herbaceous, with a sparse to dense indumentum of non-glandular hairs up to 0.6 mm long, often also with glandular hairs 0.1-0.35 mm long; bracteoles similar but smaller. Calyces 5-lobed, lobes more or less equal 3.6-5.5 mm long, 0.4-0.7 mm wide in flower, up to 8.5 mm long and 0.9 mm wide in fuit, narrowly triangular or lanceolate-subulate, thin, with distinct hyaline margins,with a sparse to dense indumentum of non-glandular hairs up to 0.6 mm long, often also with glandular hairs 0.1-0.35 mm long; corollas 7.5-13.4 mm long (tube 4.2-9 mm long, upper lip 3.3-7.7 mm long, lower lip 3.9-7.3 mm long), yellow, usually developing a dark streak in each lobe when dry; anthers 1.5-1.8 mm long, yellow, dull, upper cell 0.5-0.6 mm attached 0.5-0.6 mm above the lower, tail of lower cell 0.2-1.2 mm long. Capsules 5.4-6.5 mm long, 1.5-1.7 mm in diameter, yellowish-green, sterile in lower portion, fairly densely pubescent with hairs about 0.2 mm long; seeds tuberculate, with tubercles forming ridges.

Justicia flava is widespread in tropical Africa and Arabia and very variable in its morphology. 

©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; reproduced with permission.

Mary E. Barkworth

Habit: Annual or perennial herbs with erect stems up to 1 m tall.

Leaves: ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, blades 45-60 mm long.

Inflorescenes: Vertical, spikelike, with axilary, bracteate clusters of 3-5 flowers.

Flowers: strongly bilaterally symmetric, yellow, 7.5-13.4 mm long.

Fruits: pubescent capsules 5.4-6.5 mm long.

Comments: Morphologically variable, common in tropical Africa and Arabia.