Seems to be *Ruellia*, belonging to *Acanthaceae* family. Interesting thing about seeds of this plant - when the dry seeds are dropped into water, they crackle just like Rye in hot oil. This is due to specialised structures called *Jaculators* present in them.
Regards, Shweta On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Shantanu Bhattacharya <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi > got this nice mauve flower growing beside a canal in my locality (Kolkata). > Can someone give the name of the species? > > regards > Shantanu :) > > > Shantanu Bhattacharya. > B.Sc, M.Sc (Zoology) > University of Calcutta. > Teaching Faculty. > Dept. of Biology. > Vivekananda Mission School(ICSE). > Joka. Kolkata. > > >
