Strobilanthes zenkeriana - Shola Coneflower

Shola Coneflower is a shrub, 2-4 m tall; branchlets angled, hairless. Flowers are broad, mauve, tube about 1 cm; swollen above, about 2.7 cm; petals 5, about 1.3 x 1 cm, mauve. Stamens are 4, filament didynamous, about 5 and about 9 mm long; style about 3 cm long; stigma pointed. Sepal-cup is about 1.8 cm; tube about 3 mm; sepals 5, lanceshaped, about 1.5 cm long. Flowers are borne in spikes at branch-ends and in upper axils, erect, oblong, about 7 x 3 cm; bracts ovate, spoon-shaped below, about 2.8 x 1.5 cm; bracteoles 2, linear-lanceshaped, about 1.5 x 0.2 cm, hairless. Leaves are elliptic-ovate, 4-12 x 4-7 cm, somewhat leathery, base wedge-shaped, margins minutely toothed, tip tapering; leaf-stalks 4-9 cm long. Capsules are ellipsoid, about 1.8 x 0.4 cm; seeds 4, flat. Shola Coneflower is found in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Pambar and Vattakanal Sholas. Gregarious populations are located at Vattakanal Shola at an elevation of 2200 m. Flowering: August-October.