Botanical name:Andrographis explicataFamily:Acanthaceae (Acanthus family) Synonyms: Andrographis viscosula var. explicata
South-Indian Chiretta is an erect woody undershrub,
about 1 m tall, with stems hairless. Leaves are up to 15 x 4 cm,
elliptic, tapering at both ends, bristly; nerves 7-10 pairs; leaf-stalk
2 cm long. Flowers are borne in panicles 10-30 x 20 cm, pyramidal;
branches glandular-bristly; bracts and bracteoles minute. Flowers are
many, 2 cm long, tube gradually broadening above, not or slightly
bellied; upper lip 2-lobed, dark-purple; lobes of lower lip equal,
blunt, hairy; anthers pointed at base, hairless, filaments attached
near the base of the flower, hairless; style puberulus. Sepals are 4.5
mm long, lanceshaped, subulate, glandular hairy. Capsules are 25 x 4
mm, linear-oblong, hairy, retinacula pointed; seeds 12. South-Indian
Chiretta is endemic to Southern Western Ghats.
Flowering: August-December.
Identification credit: S. Kasim
Photographed in Vagamon, Kerala.
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The flower labeled South-Indian Chiretta is ...