Thunbergia alata Sims Acanthaceae. Black-eyed Susan. Tender, perennial herbaceous climbing plant. Distribution: East Africa. Named for Carl Peter (Pehr or Per) Thunberg (1743-1828), doctor, botanist, student of Linnaeus who collected plants in Japan, Sri Lanka and South Africa. He published Flora Japonica (1784)

Prodromus plantarum capensis (2 vols., 1794, 1800) Icones plantarum japonicarum (1805) Flora capensis (1807-1823) on the South African collections, and Voyages de C.P. Thunberg au Japon par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, les Isles de la Sonde (1796) about his travels. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1788. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.