Spiked Lepidagathis is a perennial, prostrate, rigid
herb. The species is named in honour of Prof. M. Sabu, Department of
Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala. Rootstock is woody, rooting at
basal nodes, nodes swollen, internodes 2.2-3.2 cm long. Stem is
creeping up to 1 m long, cylindrical, (four-edged and winged in
vegetative state) whitish, hairless. Leaves are stalkless; blades
2.0-2.8 cm x 2.0-3.5 mm, linear, hairless, base narrowed, margin
entire, tip pointed, spiny at tip. Flowers are borne in spikes in
leaf-axils, solitary, 4-sided, 2.0-2.8 cm long, compact, hairless,
5-10-flowered, rising up. Bracts are lanceshaped, 1.0-1.3 x 0.3-0.4 cm,
base wedge-shaped, margin entire, tip recurved spine-tipped. Sepal-cup
is 5-partite, sepals unequal, tip spiny-pointed. Flowers are 1.1-1.3 cm
long, pinkish, tube 4.5-5.5 mm long, hairless; deeply 2-lipped; upper
lip broad, rounded, 2-toothed, 3.5-4.5 mm long with horizontally pink
striations all over in inner side, hairless inside, finely velvet-hairy
outer side; lower lip deeply divided into 3 unequal lobes, 4.5-5.5 mm
long; throat blotched with yellow in the middle with horizontally pink
striations along either side within. Stamens are 4, didynamous;
filaments 3.0-5.0 mm long, style slender, curved, 1.2-1.3 cm long.
Capsule is lanceshaped, 5.8-6.0 x 2.4-2.5 mm, pointed at tip,
brownish-yellow, hairless. Spiked Lepidagathis grows on lateritic
plateaus of south Konkan region of Maharashtra.
Identification credit: Arun chandore, Sushant More
Photographed in Konkan, Maharashtra.
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The flower labeled Spiked Lepidagathis is ...