Neanotis prainiana - Mysore Starviolet

Mysore Starviolet is a densely-branched hairy herb, branches thread-like, interlaced, hairs flat, silvery, shining. Leaves are small, membranous, stalked, rhomboidal-ovate, pointed; blade about 6 mm; leaf-stalk flat, nearly as long as the blade. Flowers are borne singly at branch-ends, rosy-white, nearly 1.2 cm long. Sepal-cup is short, hairy, tube flattened, limb with 4 erect sepals. Flower have a long, slender tube, hairless at the mouth, limb 4-lobed, petals each with two parallel pink lines. Anthers are dorsally affixed, not protruding; filaments short. Ovary is 2-celled; style thread-like, 2-branched. Capsule is hairy, didymous, crustaceous, laterally compressed, seeds 7-8. This pretty ornamental plant grows in cushion-like masses in quite dry places, under overhanging rocks but in a very moist atmosphere, on the Bababuden hills of Mysore at about 1600 m elevation. Mysore Starviolet is known only from Karnataka.