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South-Indian Chaff Flower
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South-Indian Chaff Flower
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: South-Indian Chaff Flower, Pink Chaff Flower • Marathi: लाल अघाडा Lal aghada
Botanical name: Achyranthes coynei    Family: Amaranthaceae (Amaranth family)

South-Indian Chaff-flower is an erect herb, commonly found as a wasteland herb. It can be distinguished from the more common Prickly Chaff Flower by the fact that the tiny flowers are distinctly pink, whereas they are greenish in Prickly Chaff Flower. It is a perennial nearly-erect under shrub up to 1.5m tall. Leaves are deciduous; dimorphic, lower ones large 15-22 x 6-10 cm; upper leaves gradually decreases in size, elliptic or elliptic-lanceshaped, pointed or tapering; nearly hairless above, velvet-hairy beneath; margin entire, slightly wavy; leaf-stalk 1-3 cm. Flowers are borne in spikes, densely arranged on axis; axis thick, 21-40 cm long, densely velvet-hairy, whitish. Buds erect, pointing towards tip of the inflorescence; flowers spreading up to 1.2 cm in diameter, rosy or purplish. Bract persistent, linear, membranous with distinct midrib, smaller than the longest tepal, up to 5 mm long, with rosy tinge at the base. South-Indian Chaff Flower is found in West and South India.

Identification credit: Dinesh Valke Photographed at Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra.

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