Large-Spike Stone Flower is a perennial herb growing
on rocks, producing tall flowering-stems. It was thought to be extinct,
but was rediscovered in 2013, after a gap of 75 years. Leaves are all
in a rosette at the bottom. Blades are oblong to narrowly ovate, 11-27
x 4-12 cm, leathery, dull-green and velvety with a dense mat of curved
hairs above, pale-brown below, abruptly narrowed basally, obscurely
rounded toothed marginally, rounded at tip, lateral nerves 69 pairs.
Flowering stems are 1 or more, rather stout, round, erect, grooved on 2
opposite sides, up to 2 ft tall, densely pale-brown woolly; bracts
minute. Sepals are ovate, blunt, 0.6 x 0.3 cm, 3 broad, 2 narrow,
hairless and 3-nerved within, densely woolly without. Flowers are
broadly bell-shaped, about 1 x 2 cm across, oblique; petals round,
pale-blue, downy without and dotted with small, stalkless glands.
Stamens are 2. Capsules are linear, stout, 1.5-2.5 cm long, pointed,
light-brown woolly. Seeds are minute, ovoid, flattened. Large-Spike
Stone Flower is very rare, in Southern Western Ghats. Flowering:
August-September.
Identification credit: Prashant Awale
Photographed in Eravikulam National Park, Munnar, Kerala.
• Is this flower misidentified?
If yes,
Your name: Your email: Your comments
The flower labeled Large-Spike Stone Flower is ...