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Nilgiri Spiny Bottlebrush
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Nilgiri Spiny Bottlebrush
P Native Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Nilgiri Spiny Bottlebrush • Gujarati: નીલ જકારા Nil jakara • Konkani: व्हडलें काळें किरायतें Vhadlem kalem kiraytem • Marathi: निळा जकारा Nila jakara • Tamil: கம்பளிப்பூ குறிஞ்சி Kambalipoo kurinji Source: Names of Plants in India
Botanical name: Haplanthodes neilgherryensis    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Haplanthus neilgherryensis, Haplanthodes tentaculata var. neilgherryensis

Nilgiri Spiny Bottlebrush is a profusely branched herb, branches four-edged, hairless. Leaves are simple, opposite, 4-7 x 2-3 cm, elliptic, tapering at both ends, hairless, narrowing at base into a leaf-stalk 4-9 cm long. Flowers are borne whorled in cylindrical spikes, densely covered with hairy cladodes, up to 5 cm long, at branch-ends. Bracts and bracteoles are minute. Sepal-cup is 2 mm long, sepals thread-like, hairy. Flowers are 1 cm long, blue or pink; upper lip 2-lobed and lower lip 3-lobed, hairy. Stamens are 2, free, anthers unequal. Capsules are 7 mm long, oblong; seeds 6-12, thinly hairy. at branch-ends is native to Western Ghats. Flowering: January-March.

Identification credit: Prashant Awale Photographed in Karnataka and Goa.

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