Exacum courtallense - Bottle-Anther Persian Violet

Bottle-Anther Persian Violet is a herb, 25-70 cm tall. Flowers are blue, with tube 0.4-0.7 cm long; petals 5, blue, white at throat, elliptic-obovate, 1-1.2 x 0.3-0.9 cm, blunt-rounded at tip. Anthers are 5, prominently bottle-shaped, 3-6 mm long. Such anthers are present in Travancore Persian Violet too. However Travancore Persian Violet grows cushion-like, whereas this one is much taller. Style is greenish white, 0.6-1 cm long, often longer than the stamens, curved. Sepal-cup green, persistent, winged; sepals 5, ovate-narrowly lanceshaped, 10-15 x 2-3.5 mm, distinctly nerved, fused 1/4th of its length, slightly accrescent in fruits, pointed to tapering at tip. Flowers are borne in 1-5 flowered cymes at branch-ends or in leaf-axils. Bracts are lanceshaped, 1-3 x 0.5-1 cm; flower-stalks 1-3.5 cm long. Stems are pale green, round, woody, 4-lineolate when young, symmetrically much branched basally and at tip; internodes usually shorter than the leaves. Leaves are stalkless or nearly so, waxy coated; blade elliptic to oblong-lanceshaped, 2-7 x 1-4 cm, 3-nerved at base, tapering at tip, wedge-shaped at base. Capsules are brown, ovate- elliptic, 1-1.5 x 0.6-0.95 cm. Bottle-Anther Persian Violet is endemic to South India.