Shy little ruellia
By Ken Moore
An unassuming little wildflower that always surprises and delights me whenever and wherever I spot it is Ruellia caroliniensis. I generally call it simply ruellia [roo-ELL-e-ah]. It’s named for Jean de la Ruelle, the herbalist for Francois I of France in the early 16th century.
One common name is Carolina wild-petunia, though it looks nothing at all like the floppy petunias you find in gardens. Another common name, twin bluebells, seems more descriptive. The pale-purple flower is shaped something like the end of a trumpet. This upright plant stands from one to two feet tall and has one or two, sometimes more, blue flowers clustered in the upper axils of opposite-paired leaves. Individual trumpet-shaped flowers can be from one to two inches long and the open bell positioned up toward your face is usually the size of a nickel or quarter, though occasionally you’ll find one the size of a half dollar.
I’ve enjoyed spotting them here and there in my yard at the edge of the back steps and along the edge of the house foundation where the mower blade seldom travels.
Keep your eyes open and you’ll likely spot one or two along unmowed edges throughout town and along woods and field edges and sunny spots in the forests. It flowers for most of the second half of the summer. It’s a perennial, so leave it alone and it will probably stay around for several years and will proliferate as natural seedlings.
Recently, I was happy to see dozens and dozens of them in Marie Weiden’s “always-something-in-flower†curbside garden along the intersection of Boundary and North streets in Chapel Hill. I noticed them there two years ago and now there are more. When I first discovered them, Marie described that, “Oh yes, they volunteer in and they are most welcome wherever they choose to locate themselves in the curbside garden.â€
They are easily maintained. Just look out for them and be certain not to confuse them as unwanted weeds. Marie has some of the larger flowered variants and a few with four or more flowers open at once. A real thrill in allowing nature to establish seedlings in a garden is the variety of flower size and color tones produced as one surveys the results.

Shy ruellia plants are welcome where they volunteer along Marie Weiden’s curbside garden. Photo by Ken Moore.
The almost bashful presence of this wildflower is reason enough for it being seldom noticed by today’s rushed humanity. However, I know several folks in our community who cherish the ruellia as much as I. To have one or more appear in one’s own yard or garden is really special. They are not normally available at nurseries, so you’ll have to depend on luck to have them show up for you. One strategy is to keep that “closer look†with you and revisit some of
the plants you spot in the woods or about town and collect a few seed pods to scatter in some casually tended areas of your garden. Hopefully you’ll be happily surprised this.
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