A question about Justicias

[DavePoole]

It has been bugging me a bit recently that there seem to be two, wholly different variants of Justicia carnea.  I'm sure I must be missing something as to the correct IDs can anyone here throw any light on the subject?  

Here in the UK, the commonest form has velvety, sage green leaves and is rather rugged in its growth.  It makes a stoutish, shrub with the younger stems also covered in short velvety hairs.  It seems relatively tolerant to drought and light frosts and although it will defoliate, it rapidly resumes growth with the onset of warmer weather.  The racemes are rather short and squat with green bracts and bold pink flowers fading somewhat with age.  I trawled this pic from Desert Tropicals - hope they don't mind  although the flower bud colour is much too lilac.  At least you get an idea of the foliage.

Another form, which is less frequently seen here is a near hairless variant with smooth, shiny, dark green leaves that are much larger and purplish black on the undersides.  The bracts are also purplish black contrasting well with the vivid pink flowers.  In this, the raceme is longer and more cylindrical than the first form.  It is a lush growing plant, somewhat tender and heat dependent, requiring plenty of warm weather to grow and reach flowering stage.  It is also more frost tender and needs some protection (if only a heavy mulching) to get through winter.

This is my plant just starting to flower in the garden and as you can see, there's a considerable difference:

Are they really one and the same species?  If so, they should be distinct varieties and that being so, what are they?  Any thoughts anyone?