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Lepidagathis keralensis
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Family:
ACANTHACEAE
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Citation: Lepidagathis keralensis Madhu. & Singh, Kew Bull. 47: 301. 1992.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Nonganampullu, Paramullu, Venappacha
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Perennial, prostrate, much branched herbs with woody rootstock; stem glabrous, quadrangular, more or less winged. Leaves simple, opposite, 10 mm x 3 mm, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acute or blunt-acuminate at apex, dark green with purple margins, rigid, plicate, glabrous, conspicuously nerved. Spikes 1-3, terminal, procumbent, 2 cm long. Flowers sessile, ca 1 cm long; sterile bracts many (5-8), more or less uniform, up to 10 x 4 mm, oblong- lanceolate, densely pubescent, each with a stiff, sharply pointed mucronate spine, persistent. Calyx villous, deeply 5-lobed, lobes unequal, persistent, similar to bracts. Corolla 10 mm long, densely hairy in bud, tube cylindric below, suddenly expanded, 2- lipped, upper lip 2-lobed, erect or reflexed, pink, lower lip 3-lobed, pink with white to yellow palate. Stamens 4, didynamous, up to 6 mm long, sparsely hairy, 2-celled, purple to deep violet in colour. Disc annular. Ovary compressed ovoid, 2 mm long, 2- celled with one ovule in each; style slender, 7-8 mm long, hairy at lower ventral region with glands; stigma capitate, slightly bifid. Fruit a compressed capsule, 6 mm long, glabrous; seeds 2, flat, softly hairy with white aril.
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Habit:
Herb
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Flowering & Fruiting:
December-April
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District(s):
Kannur
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Laterirte hills near seacoast
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Distribution:
South India (Kerala)
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
No
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
Rose
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
No
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
Kerala
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
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Localities:
Ezhimala, Madaipara, Madayippara, Pazhyangadi, Payangadi
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