Ceropegia noorjahaniae - Noorjahan Ceropegia

Noorjahan Ceropegia is an erect perennial herb, 15-40 cm high, now a threatened plan. Stem is round in cross-section. Leaves are opposite, nearly stalkless or stalk 4-7 mm long, linear, linear-lanceshaped, 7-9 x 0.3-1.5 cm, pointed at tip, tapering at base, hairy on the upper side, hairless below or almost so. Flowers are usually 3, borne in leaf axils, the cluster carried on a stalk 3-4 mm long. Bracts are subulate, 2-2.5 mm long, flower-stalks 6-7 mm long. Sepals are 5, about 4 mm long. Flowers are 2-2.7 cm long, slightly curved, tube 1.2-1.4 cm long, inflated at base, in lower 1/2 - 2/3 part, externally pale green in lower 3/4 part, pale to dark purplish-brown in the upper 1/4 part up to basal part of the corolla lobes, inside green with longitudinal purple lines, completely hairless, petals 0.9-1.3 cm long, nearly equal to the tube, linear-oblong with pointed tip and triangular base, greenish above, pale to dark purplish-brown near the base, margins partly reflexed all along, completely hairless (without any purple hairs at base), fused at tips, forming an ovoid head. Seed-pods are in pairs, about 9 x 0.4 cm long, tapering at both ends, glabrous. Seeds are many, about 3.5 x 2.5 mm, ovoid, margined; coma about 2 cm long. Noorjahan Ceropegia is endemic to Maharashtra. Flowering: July-August.