Species · genus Justicia · Acanthaceae

Warer Willow

Justicia gendarussa Burm.fil.

Also known as: Daun Rusa · Gandarusa · White Justicia · Willow-leaved Justicia

Growth habit

subshrub or shrub

Native range

Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam

Justicia gendarussa — reference photo — no rights reserved · CC0

Cultivars of J. gendarussa

The named forms growers keep — each with its own page, each honest about how much we know.

No named cultivars catalogued under J. gendarussa yet. When growers document a stable, named form, it earns its own page here.

Guide

The species-level account. Cultivar pages build on this and say where they differ.

A Shrub of Tropical Asia

Justicia gendarussa is a subshrub or shrub in the Acanthaceae family, native to tropical Asia. It grows primarily within the seasonally dry tropical biome, and belongs to a genus of evergreen perennials and shrubs known for tubular, two-lipped flowers with conspicuous bracts.

Source: Kew

Cultivated Across Asia

This species is widespread through India and Southeast Asia, where it is usually found under cultivation and has naturalised in many places. Within its range it has long been grown as a hedge plant, sometimes lingering on in abandoned gardens and fields at low elevations of roughly 20 to 200 metres.

Source: Kew

Purple Stems, Two-Lipped Blooms

This is a shrubby herb or shrub reaching up to about 1.5 metres, occasionally to 3 metres, with young branches that are purple and largely hairless. Its leaves are narrowly ovate to elliptic, glabrous, and taper at the base without running down the stem. Flowers appear in small clustered cymes forming racemes up to 12 centimetres long, with a corolla in shades of white to purple, marked darker on the deeply three-lobed lower lip. The fruit is a small capsule whose placentae spring elastically away from the outer wall as it matures.

Source: Kew

Care recipe

The species record — the baseline every cultivar inherits unless it says otherwise.

Care notes are early — not yet verified

Light: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Water: ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d)
Humidity: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Soil: ai:claude-fable-5
Care: ai:claude-fable-5

Light

Bright, indirect

Water

≈ every 10 days

Humidity

Medium

Temperature

16–32 °C

Soil mix

Fertile, well-draining loamy mix

Propagation

Stem cuttings root very readily

Fertilizing

Balanced liquid feed monthly in the growing season

Growth rate

Fast

Flowering

Small white-to-pink flowers; grown mainly for foliage

ToxicityAuthoritative · species

Not yet documented

This is where toxicity lives — every cultivar of this species inherits it and none can override it.

Reference images

Every image credited. Licenses link to their deeds.

Sources: ai:claude-opus-4-8 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d) · ai:claude-fable-5

Kept true by its growers

Every fact here carries its source. Grow Warer Willow yourself? What you’ve observed — how it drinks, how it holds its color, a name that’s off — and a clear photo of your plant are exactly what keep this page honest. Contributions are reviewed before anything changes.