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Shade Loving Coneflower
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Shade Loving Coneflower
A Native Photo: Pravin Kawale
Common name: Shade Loving Coneflower • Marathi: मोरपंखी Morpankhi • Nepali: कांगराइतो फूल Kangaraito phool
Botanical name: Strobilanthes pavala    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Hemigraphis latebrosa, Ruellia pavala, Hemigraphis pavala

Shade Loving Coneflower is an annual herb, growing to 10-20 cm high. The funnel-shaped flowers are violetish white in the throat with streaks of violet. The flower throat is also hairy. Flowers have 5 blue, rounded unequal petals. Sepal-cup is 5-lobed, free near to the base; sepals unequal, fringed with hairs, sparsely glandular-hairy; larger lobe 7-9 mm long, oblong-linear; other 4-lobes 5-7 mm long, linear. The slender stem is covered with soft white hairs. Oppositely arranged ovate-elliptic narrow leaves are 3-8 cm long. Flowers occur either in the leaf axils, or in spikes at the end of stems. Shade Loving Coneflower is common in the grasslands of the Western Ghats. It is also found in Western Himalaya, at altitudes of 300-2400 m, and in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Flowering: November-December.

Identification credit: Pravin Kawale, Girdhar Netam Photographed in Lonavala, Maharashtra.

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