East-Himalayan Rock Cosmos is a perennial herb with short
rhizomatous stem and crowded fibrous roots. Flower are purple,
two-lipped, hairy outside, hairless inside; tube about 7 mm long,
oblique, bell-shaped, its orifice narrowly ovate-pentagonal, about 5-8
mm; throat purple to pale purple; upper lip about 4 mm long, 2-lobed
nearly to base, lobes purple, about 4 x 5 mm; lower lip about 1 cm
long, about 1.7 cm wide, 3-lobed to the middle, lobes almost equal,
about 6 x 8 mm. Stamens are 2, about 4 mm long, pistil about 1 cm long,
style about 5.5 mm long. Flower-stalks are 0.9-1.5 cm long, sepal-cup
green to purple, 5-lobed nearly to base; sepals about 6 mm long,
lanceshaped, equal. Flowers are borne in 1-6 cymes which are
1-8-flowered, carried on flower-cluster-stalks 3-13 cm long. Leaves are
5-16 per plant, all basal; leaf-stalks 2-13 cm long, densely covered
with transparent villi; blades borne on a stalk attached to the lower
surface, lanceshaped-ovate to widely ovate, elliptic to widely
elliptic, 2-13 x 1-7 cm, papery, rounded at base, sometimes oblique,
with entire or wavy margins, pointed to rounded at tip, its upper
surface covered with glandular hairs and villi, lower surface densely
covered with villi; lateral veins 3-5 on either side of midrib. East-Himalayan
Rock Cosmos is found in East Himalaya and Vietnam, at altitudes of 1700
m. Flowering: September-November.
Identification credit: Momang Taram
Photographed in Lower Subansiri Distt, Arunachal Pradesh.
• Is this flower misidentified?
If yes,
Your name: Your email: Your comments
The flower labeled East-Himalayan Rock Cosmos is ...