FoI
Scarlet Wrightia
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Scarlet Wrightia
ative Photo: Ritesh Choudhary
Common name: Scarlet Wrightia • Sanskrit: Strikutaja • Mizo: Hleng-par-sen
Botanical name: Wrightia coccinea    Family: Apocynaceae (Oleander family)
Synonyms: Nerium coccineum

Scarlet Wrightia is a small tree up to 20 m tall. Bark is pale gray to brownish; branchlets warty, hairless. Leaf-stalks are about 5 mm. Leaves are elliptic to ovate, 5-17 X 3-8 cm, hairless or hairy along veins on the underside, tip long-pointed. Lateral veins are 8-14 pairs. Showy scarlet flowers are borne singly or in cymes, 2-3.5 cm. Sepals are broadly ovate, 5-9 mm. Flowers are reddish, funnel-shaped. Tube is bellshaped, shorter than the sepal cup, petals are broadly obovate. Corona is crimson, cup-shaped, tip incised. Anthers protrude out. Seed pods are linear, fused, 14-20 cm, prominently spotted. Seeds are linear, about 2 cm. Scarlet Wrightia is found in dense mountain forests of East India, at altitudes of 300-1800 m. Flowering: January-May.

Identification credit: Ritesh Choudhary Photographed in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.

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