The Family Acanthaceae Er One of Em, Anyhow

At the CB we are very fond of the family of plants, Acanthaceae. Acanthaceae is very much a small, manageable family in these parts. An apt scholar could, with lotsa luck, learn all the species of Acanthaceae that habitate in these parts in a summer, about the same amount of time it would take an apt scholar to learn all the herps of the same geography.

We should like all the Acanthaceae species that occur in these parts to grow here at the CB, but we are habitat limited, especially for those ones that like lotsa water, or the ones that like near Beelzebub-arific growing conditions. We're not quite there yet.

This is one of the wet ones we like a lot, especially because of its fanciful scientific name, Justicia americana. Wet indeed! And the name reminds of a popular doggerel of my youth.

Order in the court. The judge is gonna spit. If ye can't swim, ye better get.