Drummond’s Wild Petunia

Shade or partial shade. Purple trumpet flowers arise from the leaf axils of broad-based leaves. Among the wild local ruellias, this is a particularly large-leaved and attractive species, endemic to central Texas and one of the twelve Texas native ruellias. 

Unlike the aggressively invasive Mexican Petunia, Ruellia simplex, this local species is well behaved in the garden and can function as an informal perennial groundcover (alongside plants like soft-hair marbleseed, inland sea oats and Turk’s cap) in the shaded native understory of elm-oak-hackberry woodlands.