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Andaman Bellthorn
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Andaman Bellthorn
ative Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Andaman Bellthorn
Botanical name: Codonacanthus sanjappae    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)

Andaman Bellthorn is a herb, up to 50 cm high. Stems are quadrangular when young, round when mature, hairless. Leaves leathery, ovate-elliptic, 1.5-4.5 x 1-2 cm, pointed to blunt at tip, entire, wedge-shaped to narrowed at base, lateral nerves in 4-5 pairs; leaf-stalks 4-5 mm long, hairless. Panicles at branch-ends, up to 8 cm long, glandular velvet-hairy. Flower-cluster-stalks 1.5-3.0 cm long, glandular velvet-hairy. Bracts linear, about 3.0 x 0.5 mm, hairless. Bracteoles 2, about 1.2 x 0.3 mm, glandular velvet-hairy. Flower-stalks ca 2 mm long, glandular velvet-hairy. Sepals 5, linear, about 3.0 x 0.7 mm, tapering at tip, slightly fused at base, glandular velvet-hairy on both surfaces. flower pinkish-white, 5-lobed, 1.0-1.2 x 0.7-0.8 cm, swollen; tube about 8 mm long, glandular velvet-hairy on both surfaces; lobes ovate, about 3 x 2 mm, blunt at tip; upper lobes 3, white, lower two lobes pink. Stamens 2; filaments about 2 mm long, velvet-hairy, winged at one side; anthers oblong, about 1.5 mm long; connective velvet-hairy. Disc ca 0.5 x 0.5 mm. Ovary ovoid, about 1.0 x 0.5 mm, glandular velvet-hairy, 2-locular; ovules 2 in each locule; style about 5 mm long, glandular velvet-hairy. Capsules obovoid-ellipsoid, 1.0-1.2 cm long, glandular velvet-hairy. Seeds nearly round, about 2 x 1 mm, longitudinally grooved. Flowering: January-March.

Identification credit: Jayanthi Janakiraman, C.Murugan Photographed in Andaman.

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