Red-Spur White Balsam is a Shrubs, about 1.5-2.5 cm tall.
Flowers are borne in leaf-axils, in inverted, 2-4 flowered racemes,
flower-cluster-stalk reddish, about 5-8 cm long.
Flowers are bisexual, white, yellow or pale orange, wings yellow with
red line on ventral side, about 3-5 cm across,
flower-stalk slender, about 1.5-2 cm long,
bracts linear subulate, red, about 4 mm long. Sepals are 3, overlapping,
2 lateral ones flat, small, lanceshaped-ovate, reddish, tip apiculate,
hairless, lower sepal large, petal-like, shallow boat-shaped,
about 2-3 cm long, spurred, spur abruptly constricted, curved coil-like,
reddish with brown spots, about 1 cm long, petals 5, upper standard
petal, keeled, round, about 1.3-1.5 x 1.8-2 cm across, spurred dorsally,
spur red, about 5 mm long, lateral ones (wings or alae), fused in pairs,
bilobed, basal lobes ovate, margins entire, about 1.3 x 1.5 cm across,
distal lobes, elliptic-inverted-lanceshaped, margins entire, dorsal ear
present. Stems are erect, stout, branched, woody near the base.
Leaves are alternate, ovate-elliptic
to inverted-lanceshaped-oblong, about 5-25 x 2-8 cm across, base
wedge-shaped or narrowed, margins rounded toothed-sawtoothed with few
thread-like glandular appendages which start from almost the middle of
the leaf-stalk, tip tapering to with a tail, lateral veins about 6-12
on either side of the midrib, papery, green above and paler beneath,
velvet-hairy both above and beneath, leaf-stalk slender, reddish, up to
7 cm long, winged narrowly with a pair of stalked glands on both sides.
Red-Spur White Balsam is native to East Himalaya, from Nepal to Myanmar.
Identification credit: Rajib Gogoi
Photographed in Soureni, Mirik, West Bengal.
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The flower labeled Red-Spur White Balsam is ...