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Racemose Starviolet
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Racemose Starviolet
A Native Herb elliptic Photo: Anurag Sharma
Common name: Racemose Starviolet
Botanical name: Neanotis rheedei    Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Synonyms: Hedyotis rheedei, Hedyotis racemosa, Hedyotis capillipes

Racemose Starviolet is an erect, slender, branched, annual herb, with stem hairless; internodes long. Leaves are opposite, 4-6.5 x 1-1.2 cm, membranous, ovate or elliptic, tip pointed or tapering, base tapering or wedge-shaped, sparsely hairy; leaf-stalk about 2 cm long; stipules 2 x 5 mm, membranous, with 6-8 slender, hairy teeth. Flowers 3-4 mm long, pink, in at branch-ends or in leaf-axils lax cymes; flower-cluster-stalk slender; flower-stalks short; bracts minute, fringed. Calyx about 1.5 mm long; lobes 4, linear, elongating in fruit. Flower tube short, cylindric; petals 4, spreading. Stamens are 4, inserted on flower tube; anthers 2-celled; cells linear. Capsule 2 x 5 mm, compressed, splitting from top, appearing like 4 fused cups. Racemose Starviolet is endemic to Western Ghats. Flowering: November-December.

Identification credit: Prabhu Kumar K.M Photographed in Nelliyampathy, Kerala

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