• Family : ACANTHACEAE
  (Acanthus Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : ARUSA FAMILY (अडूसा फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : ACANTHACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Not found in The Plant List
• Common name : White Shrimp plant, Squirrel Tail, Paper Plume
• Vernacular name : Tellantu, Tellarantu, Tella addasaramu, Velimungilu (Telugu); Vellakurinji, Venkurinni, Paduthamara (Marathi)
• Habit : Undershrub
• Habitat : On plains above 900m, in thickets by stream banks, moist deciduous forests and wastelands
• Comments / notes : Often cultivated
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Throughout Andhra Pradesh
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Tamil Nadu : Throughout
• World Distribution : Old World tropics
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2011 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 4; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.; Kamble & Pradhan, 1988. Flora of Akola District, Maharashtra. Botanical Survey of India.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Justicia betonica var. betonica. Downloaded on 2 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

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