FoI
East-Himalayan Persian Violet
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East-Himalayan Persian Violet
P Native Photo: Niku Das
Common name: East-Himalayan Persian Violet
Botanical name: Exacum teres    Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)

East-Himalayan Persian Violet is a plant 1-3 ft tall. Stems are erect or rising up, little branched, round. Leaves are stalkless, narrowly ovate to lanceshaped, 4-10 x 0.8-2.5 cm, base wedge-shaped, tip mostly pointed but sometimes blunt on basal leaves; veins 3, prominent. Flowers are borne in mostly 3-flowered cymes in a narrow racemelike inflorescence. Flower-cluster-stalk is up to 1.5 cm, flattened, up to 3 cm in fruit; bracts mostly linear, sometimes leaflike. Flower-stalks are 0.5-2 mm. Sepal-cup is 7-10 mm; sepals ovate, tip tapering, midvein raised into a narrow wing. Flowers are bright blue fading to purple and drying to purplish pink, 2.5-3 cm in diameter; tube about 0.7 cm; petals 1.2-1.6 cm x 6-7 mm, tip shortly tapering. Filaments are 2-3 mm; anthers 8-10 mm. Style is about 1.5 cm. Capsules are ellipsoid, 7-12 x 5-8 mm. East-Himalayan Persian Violet is found in disturbed sites, often along roadsides, on scree slopes or river beds, in East Himalaya, from Nepal to Yunnan, NE India, at altitudes up to 1500 m.

Identification credit: Niku Das Photographed in Balemu, West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh.

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