Exacum wightianum - Leafy Persian Violet

Leafy Persian Violet is an undershrub, about l.2 m high. Flowers are borne in cymes 3-5 cm long, in leaf-axils and at branch-ends, generally 3-5-flowered, rarely solitary. Flower-tube is about 7 mm long, 5-lobed; petals ovate, about 2.5 x 1 cm, tapering, glandular, lavender or dark blue, throat yellow. Flower-stalks are 2-4 cm long in solitary flowers. Stamens are 5; filaments about 2 mm long; anthers oblong, 5-6 mm long, base heart-shaped. Sepal-cup is 5-lobed, fused at base; sepals lanceshaped, winged, hyaline at margin, tapering, about l.5 cm x 3 mm; wing broad and rounded at base and tapering above, tapering, about 2 mm across, glandular, green. Ovary is oblong or obovoid, about 4 x 3 mm, 2-loculed; ovules many; style about 1.5 cm long; stigma somewhat head-like;, about 1 mm across. Branchlets are 4-angular. Leaves are arranged in mutually perpendicular opposite pairs, ovate, 5-8 x 2-5 cm, rounded or somewhat heart-shaped at base, pointed or tapering at tip, membranous, hairless, 5-nerved from base, stalkless. Capsules are broadly ovoid, about 1 cm across, with persistent sepals. Leafy Persian Violet is native to Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Flowering: July-January.