Mizoram White Stone Flower is a tree-dwelling herb, up
to 20 cm tall. It is named for Dr. Vicki Ann Funk (1947-2019), who was
a well-known botanist and curator at the Smithsonians National Museum
of
Natural History, USA. Flowers are funnel-shaped, 2.8-3.5 cm long,
outside velvet-hairy as on sepals, inside hairless, densely striped
with pinkish stripes, variable across population, petals 5, 6 x 2-6 mm,
rounded to flat, striped, filaments 3-5 mm long, staminodes 2 or 3,
unequal in length, 3-5 mm long, anthers oblong, 2 mm long, bearded,
white. Ovary is cylindrical, 1.2-1.5 cm long including slender stipe,
glandular-velvet-hairy, greenish; stigma head-like, reddish. Sepals
are 5, free to base, symmetrically inverted-lanceshaped, 1-1.2 cm long,
up to 0.3 cm wide, tips pointed. Inflorescence are 1-4, in leaf-axils,
arising from among the leaves, stalked, pair-flowered, many-flowered
cymes with 6 or more flowers. Flower-cluster-stalks are up to 4-12 cm.
Stem is erect or rising up, light green to maroon, covered with
multicellular eglandular hairs, densely interspersed with golden
pigment glands. Leaves are 1-3 pairs, opposite, decussate, unequal
pairs, leaf-stalks 1-6 x 0.4 cm. Leaves are 5-22 x 2-8.5 cm, ovate to
lanceshaped, base blunt or heart-shaped, often asymmetrical, tip
pointed to blunt, margin bi-sawtoothed, upper surface dark green,
uniformly velvet-hairy, lower surface light green, velvet-hairy along
the veins, rarely velvet-hairy otherwise, densely covered with golden
colored glands. Midrib with 6-9 lateral veins, sunken above, raised
below. Capsules are linear, 4.5 cm long, 0.2 cm wide. Mizoram White
Stone Flower is found from Mizoram to Myanmar. Flowering:
August-October.
Identification credit: M. Sawmliana
Photographed in Hmuifang, Aizawl dist., Mizoram.
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The flower labeled Mizoram White Stone Flower is ...