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Short-Spike Chloranthus
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Short-Spike Chloranthus
E Native Photo: Siddarth Machado
Common name: Short-Spike Chloranthus • Mizo: Senthet
Botanical name: Sarcandra glabra subsp. brachystachys    Family: Chloranthaceae (Chloranthus family)
Synonyms: Chloranthus brachystachys, Chloranthus montanus, Sarcandra hainanensis

Short-Spike Chloranthus is an evergreen subshrub, 50-150 cm tall. Stems are cylindric, erect, hairless, nodes swollen. Stipules are subulate; leaf-stalks 0.5-2 cm. Leaf blade elliptic or broadly elliptic to oblong, 8-20 x 3-8 cm, papery, margin dully sawtoothed except basally. Inflorescences at branch-ends, usually branched, in spikes, 1.5-4 cm with flower-cluster-stalks; bracts triangular or ovate. Flowers are yellowish green. Stamen 1, ovoid; thecae much shorter than connective. Stigma is minutely spotted. Fruit is orange-red at maturity, ovoid, about 4 mm, ovoid. Short-Spike Chloranthus is native to S. India, Sri Lanka, S. China to Indo-China. Flowering: October-May.
Medicinal uses: Short-Spike Chloranthus is used in Chinese folk medicine.

Identification credit: Siddarth Machado Photographed in Gavi, Kerala.

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