Botanical name:Scutellaria discolorFamily:Lamiaceae (Mint family) Synonyms: Scutellaria indica
Bicolor Skullcap is a perennial shrub, with 1 to few stems, 1-2 ft tall.
Flowers are blue, tubular 2-lipped, in long slender loose leafless spikes,
8-25 cm long. Flowers are 1.3-1.8 cm long, with a slender, curved tube,
opening into two lips. Upper lips is entire, hooded, and the lower one is
broad, 3-lobed, often paler in color. Sepals cup is 2 mm long, enlarging
in fruit and covering the nutlets. The common name of the plant comes from
the sepal cups which look like medieval helmets. Elliptic leaves are
mostly at the base, with blunt-toothed margins, 2-8 cm long, long stalked,
often purple on the underside. Bicolor Skullcap is found on shady banks in
the Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to NE India, at altitudes of 700-2400 m.
Flowering: July-November.
Medicinal uses: Juice of the plant is applied to wounds between
the toes caused by prolonged walking barefooted in muddy water during the
rainy season. Juice of the root, about 4 teaspoons twice a day, is given
to treat indigestion and gastric troubles.
Identification credit: Prashant Awale
Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.
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The flower labeled Bicolor Skullcap is ...