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Stalkless Blue Rattlepod
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Stalkless Blue Rattlepod
ative Photo: Nidhan Singh
Common name: Stalkless Blue Rattlepod • Chepang: सोकरोक Sokrok
Botanical name: Crotalaria sessiliflora subsp. sessiliflora    Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonyms: Crotalaria nepaulensis, Crotalaria burmanica

Stalkless Blue Rattlepod is an annual herb, 1-2 ft tall. Branches are velvety with silky hairs. Leaves are simple, about 4.6-15 cm long, linear to lanceshaped, pointed, hairless above, thinly silky below. Stipules are minute. Flowers are borne in a raceme, up to 25 cm long, 2-20-flowered, rarely flowers solitary. Bract and bracteoles are long, setaceous. Sepal cup is 1-1.3 cm long, velvety, hairs brown, silky, teeth pointed. Flowers are blue to purplish blue, slightly shorter than calyx; standard oblong, 7-10 x 4-7 mm, sparsely bristly below along midvein, base with 2 appendages, tip blunt to flat. Wings are oblong to linear-oblong, shorter than standard; keel as long as standard, bent sharply below middle, upper margin proximally woolly, apex extended into straight twisted beak. Fruit is 1.5 cm long, glabrous, sessile, 10-15-seeded. Stalkless Blue Rattlepod is found in Pakistan, India, Himalayas, Burma, China, Japan, Philippines, at altitudes of 100-1600 m. Flowering: May-November.

Identification credit: Krishan Lal Photographed in Uttarakhand & Sirmaur Distt, Himachal Pradesh.

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