Torenia flava - Yellow Wishbone Flower

Yellow Wishbone Flower is an erect herb, 25-40 cm tall, usually branched from base, hairy. Flowers are yellow, tube 1-1.2 cm, lower lip lobes nearly round, nearly equal; upper lip lobes slightly larger than lower lobes, margin entire or notched. Sepal-cup is narrowly cylindric, straight to slightly curved, 5-10 x 2-3 mm, 10-15 x 3-5 mm in fruit, hairy, 5-ribbed; veins fringed with hairs; sepals 5, narrowly lanceshaped, nearly as long as sepal-cup tube in fruit. Flower-stalks are about 5 mm, usually shorter than sepal-cup. The common name “Wishbone Flower” comes from the two stamens united at the anthers, forming a structure that resembles a chicken wishbone. Flowers are borne in racemes at branch-ends, 10-20 cm; bracts oblong-ovate, 5-8 mm, hairy, margin fringed with hairs, tip tapering. Leaf-stalks are about 5.8 mm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 3-5 x 1-2 cm, below hairless except for veins, above hairy, base wedge-shaped and tapering, margin rounded toothed. Capsule narrowly ellipsoid. Yellow Wishbone Flower is found in dry meadows, forest margins; below 1000 m, in India, China to SE Asia. Flowering: June-November.