in

Love ItLove It

The Mexican Petunia

This is called the Ruellia simplex. It is also commonly known as the Mexican petunia, Mexican bluebell or Britton’s wild petunia. This plant comes in colors of blue , pink and white. It grows like a weed. The seed pods crack open when they are dry or when moisture touches them and the seeds are fly out like a bullet from a gun. The seeds reach far and wide and start growing in cracks and crevices too with a help of a little rain.

With the kind of rain we are having in the last few months these plants are everywhere. These plants attracts ants and mealy bugs. As pretty as they are they tend to become an annoyance in my garden. Everyday I have to weed out 20-25 plants.

  • Question of

    Have you see the Mexican petunia where you live?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Can you see the ant on the flower?

    • Yes
    • No

Report

What do you think?

16 Points

Written by Dawn

18 Comments

  1. Yes, these plants are very common here. I have planted them in my garden before and they were very easy to grow. Thanks for sharing this, as I have been finding what the name is for this flower.
    A friend told me this flower is toxic and asked me not to plant in my garden. I wanted to find out more, but didn’t know what the name is. 🙂

    • No Kakal35 these are not in the list of toxic plants. Most plants aren’t unless pets or kids eat them. My dogs don’t even go near these. They know which leaves are edible. My dogs eat mint , spinach and such.