Didymocarpus lineicapsa - Mizoram Stone Flower

Mizoram Stone Flower is a herb growing ground or rocks, up to 15 cm tall, 1 to 4 stems arising from the same rhizome. Flowers are 1.5-1.8 cm long, about 2.2 mm wide, tubular, light purple at base but dark purple towards throat and petals. Flower tube is usually held perpendicular to the flower-stalk; flower tube hairless at base but with multicellular glandular hairs below the petals. Flowers are bi-lipped, total 5 lobes; upper lobes 2, 1.6 x 3.1 mm, tips rounded; lower lobes 3, 6.5-7.5 x 3.5-4.5 mm, spreading at right angles to the upper lobes, middle lobe tip rounded, lateral lobes tips blunt. Stamens are 2, filament inserted at about 1/3 rd of the length of the flower tube. Sepal-cup is 5-6.5 mm long, maroon colored, tripartite; two segments up to 0.5 mm wide, linear-lanceshaped, tip pointed, free to base; third segment tritoothed, up to 1.2 mm wide. Flower-stalks are up to 2 cm long, pale pink, covered with glandular and eglandular hairs; bracteoles absent. Inflorescences are 1 to 4, in leaf-axils, spreading from upper leaves forming the whorl, erect, pair-flowered, many-flowered cymes, usually arising only from the axils of the 1-2 uppermost pairs of leaves; flower-cluster-stalk 1.5-6 cm long, up to 5 mm thick. Stems are 3-15 cm long, 2-4 mm wide at base, erect, dark green, round, densely woolly. Leaves are in 4-6 pairs, opposite and anisophyllous, decussate, often whorled at the top; leaf-stalks up to 2.7 cm long, round, densely woolly as on stem, sparsely covered with globular, yellow pigment glands; blade 3-10 cm x 1.5-3.5 cm, lanceshaped to narrowly elliptic, base oblique, tip pointed; margin toothed, often entire towards the base, dorsal surface dark green, densely bristly with short eglandular hairs, midrib with 8-10 secondary veins on each side, sunken above, raised below. Capsules are 1.5-2.5 cm long, linear straight, hairless, longitudinally splitting. Mizoram Stone Flower is known only from the state of Mizoram, found at altitudes of 1225 m. Flowering: August-September.