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Orange Mizoram Stone Flower
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Orange Mizoram Stone Flower
P Native Photo: M. Sawmliana
Common name: Orange Mizoram Stone Flower • Mizo: Chhakzhau
Botanical name: Didymocarpus parryorum    Family: Gesneriaceae (Gloxinia family)

Orange Mizoram Stone Flower is a herb growing on ground or on rocks, up to 20 cm tall, total height including inflorescence about 25 cm. It is named for Dr. Charles Christopher Parry, 19th century English-born American botanist and collector with the Pacific Railway Survey. Showy orange flowers, contrasting against yellow sepals, are 1.3-2.2 cm long, about 1.5 mm wide, tubular, tip funnel-shaped, hairless. Flower tube is dorsally orange while ventral section has a light yellow stripe running along its length, flower lobes two-lipped, orange, hairless, round, upper lobes 2, 1.5 x 2 mm; lower lobes 3, 4 x 3 mm, spreading at right angles to the upper lobes, central lobe wider than the 2 lateral lobes. Stamens are 2, oblong, hairless, inserted near the throat of the flower tube. Sepal-cup is up to 1 cm long, bright yellow, sepals 5, free to base, linear lanceshaped, tip pointed, thick, persistent. Flower-stalks are 4-12 mm long, greenish-yellow, hairless. Inflorescences are 1-4, stalked, erect, axillary, pair-flowered dichasial 12-16 flowered cymes, arising from the axils of the 1-2 uppermost pairs of leaves. Flower-cluster-stalk is 10-25 cm long. Stem is 3-10 x 3.5-8 mm, erect, dark brown to light green, round, velvet-hairy. Leaves are 1-4 pairs, opposite, anisophyllous, decussate, arrangement clustered in close pairs, at branch-ends pair is reduced, exstipulate; leaf-stalks 4-9 cm long. Leaf blade is 6-12 x 5-10 cm, round to ovate, base heart-shaped to obliquely heart-shaped, tip pointed to somewhat blunt, margins rounded toothed to sawtoothed, dorsal surface dark green, velvet-hairy with eglandular hairs, midrib with 6-8 secondary veins in either side, basal 3-4 pairs palmate, sunken above, raised below. Capsules are 1.7-2.4 cm, linear, hairless. Orange Mizoram Stone Flower is known only from Mizoram.

Identification credit: Gopal Krishna Photographed on Lungpuizawl to Sairep road, Mizoram.

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