Botanical name: Lepidagathis trinervis    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Barleria axillaris, Lepidagathis axillaris, Ruellia trinervis

Frilly Scaly-Ball is a prostrate to suberect undershrub reaching up to a foot tall, arising from a woody rootstock. Its twigs are quadrangular, either bristly or hairless. Leaves are stalkless, linear to narrowly lance-shaped, 2–4.5 cm long and 3–5 mm broad, hairless, and distinctly 3-nerved from the base; the lateral nerves are weaker than the midrib and run along the entire margin. Flowers are light pink, arranged in dense, one-sided, stalkless, oblong-ovoid spikes 1–2 cm long, borne in leaf axils. These spikes are often fascicled near the rootstock or slightly above. The frilly appearance of the flowers is due to long, spine-tipped bracts, which are ovate or elliptic-ovate, 4–5 × 2.5–3 mm, with a recurved spine 3.5–4.5 mm long. Bracteoles are nearly as long as the bracts. Sepals are 5, 7–8 mm long. Flowers are 5–6 mm long, and capsules are 5–6 mm long, 2-seeded. Frilly Scaly-Ball is found in East Himalayas and from Bihar to central, western and southern India. Flowering: September-February.
Medicinal uses: The plant is used as a bitter tonic. It is used for rheumatic affections.

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The flower labeled Frilly Scaly-Ball is ...