FoI
Sallow Swertia
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Sallow Swertia
B Native Photo: Amber Srivastava
Common name: Sallow Swertia, Dull Swertia
Botanical name: Swertia lurida    Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)
Synonyms: Ophelia lurida

Sallow Swertia is an annual or biennial herb up to 50 cm tall. Stem is erect, ribbed to quadrangular, hairless. Leaves are stalkless, leaf blade ovate or elliptic, 1-3.2 x 0.3-1cm, stem-clasping or clasping, margin entire, tip pointed, veins 3-5. Inflorescence panicles of cymes. Flowers are 4-merous. Bracts ovate-lanceshaped, 5 x 2 mm, vein 1. Calyx is greenish yellow; tube 0.5mm; sepals elliptic, 2.5-3 × 1mm. Flowers are lurid green-yellow; tube 0.5 mm; petals ovate, dark purple band present around the glands, 4-4.5 c 2mm; glands 2 per flower lobe, oblong, parallel, without fimbria. Stamens are 4; filament 2-2.5mm; anthers dorsifixed. Carpel 3-3.5mm. It is found on open slopes, in moist areas. Sallow Swertia is found in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to Nepal, at altitudes up to 2500 m. Flowering: September-November.

Identification credit: Amber Srivastava Photographed in Deoban, Chakrata, Uttarakhand.

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