Triosteum himalayanum - Himalayan Horse-Gentian

Himalayan Horse-Gentian is a perennial herb with stem 1-2 ft cm tall, rarely 2-branched at top at anthesis, densely hairy and glandular hairy. Leaves are usually 9 or 10 pairs, leaf blade obovate-elliptic to obovate-oblong, 8-16 cm long, 5-15 cm wide, relatively densely long hairy on veins and mixed glandular hairy on the underside, long hirsute above, base fused so that the stem appears to pierce the leaves, tip pointed. Flowers are borne in 2-5-whorled cymes, clustered at top of stem or sometimes forming a spike on branches. Sepals are triangular-cicrular, hairy and glandular hairy, constricted between tube and lobes. Flowers are yellow-green, tube purple-brown inside, about 1.6 cm, about 3 times as long as calyx, outside glandular-hairy, tube curved at base, gibbous on one side. Stamens do not protrude out, filaments yellowish, long, slender, anthers yellow, oblong. Fruit is red, marble-like, 1.0-1.2 cm in diameter, crowned with a short beak consisting of persistent sepals and constricted calyx tube, hairy and glandular hairy. Himalayan Horse-Gentian is found in the Himalayas, from Kumaun to Bhutan, Tibet, W China, at altitudes of 2800-4000 m. Flowering: May-July.