FoI
Indian Campion
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Indian Campion
ative Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Indian Campion
Botanical name: Silene indica var. indica    Family: Caryophyllaceae (Carnation family)
Synonyms: Lychnis indica, Lychnis ciliata, Melandrium indicum

Indian Campion is a perennial herb, up to 55 cm tall. Stems are usually simple, erect, greyish-green, minutely velvety to rough. Leaves are 2.2-7 cm long, 0.5-3 cm wide, variable in size and shape. Uppermost ones are smaller, middle stem and basal leaves are linear-lanceshaped to inverted-lanceshaped or ovate lanceshaped, stalked, membranous, minutely velvety. Flowers are borne in lax dichotomously branched cymes, white inside, pale purplish to reddish-brown on the outside, usually looking down when young. Flower-stalks are velvety. Sepal cup is 1.2-2 cm long, inflated, membranous, oblong to spherical, minutely velvety to glandular, with prominent nerves. Nerves are many, green to greenish-brown. Sepals are pointed or blunt margin minutely ciliate. Petals are divided into two lobes, but are not frilly, in contrast to Edgeworth's Campion. Capsule equals or barely exceeds the sepal cup. Seeds are about 1.1 mm long, kidney-shaped, black. Edgeworth's Campion is found in NW and W Himalayas, from Kashmir to Kumaon up to 3000 m. Flowering: June-July.

Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed in Valley of Flowers & Chakrata, Uttarakhand.
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