Strobilanthes sunhangii - Double-Curved Coneflower

Double-Curved Coneflower is an undershrub 1-2 m high, gregarious. The species name honors Prof. Hang Sun (1963) for his outstanding contributions to the flora of Himalayan regions and collecting this new species for the first time. Flowers are borne in leaf-axil spikes, simple or rarely 2-furcate, slender, 11-22 cm long. Flowers are 1.0-2.5 cm apart on axis. Flower-tube is basally cylindrical, about 3 mm wide and about 6 mm long, then bent to about 90 degree, and gradually widened to 9-12 mm wide at middle and 1.6-1.8 cm long, then secondly bent to about 90 degree and tube upper cylindrical 9-12 mm wide and 1.6-1.8 cm long. Lobes are broadly elliptic, 8-9 x 7-8 mm, tips notched. Stamens are 4, didynamous, not protruding. Sepal-cup is 7-8 mm long, hairless, 5-lobed to middle; sepals ovate, equal, tips tapering. Flowers are 2.8-3.3 cm long, bell-shaped, outside and lobes pinkish-white, inside purplish-pink, outside hairless, inside hairless. Stems are almost round, hairless, slightly swollen at node. Leaves are slightly unequal (in pairs), smaller one about 2/3 of the larger one in size; leaf-stalk 3-7 mm long or leaf-stalk of smaller leaf in each pair shorter, grooved, hairless; blades ovate to lanceshaped-ovate, smaller ones 4.2-6.9 x 1.2-2.0 cm, larger ones 8.2-10.1 x 2.2-3.2 cm, both surfaces hairless, densely covered with numerous linear cystoliths, secondary veins 3-5 on each side of midvein and prominent on both surfaces, base rounded to broadly wedge-shaped, slightly oblique, margin minutely toothed, tip tapering and narrowly with a tail. Double-Curved Coneflower is found in Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh, at altitudes of 1200-1800 m.