Sonerila maculata - Spotted-Leaf Sonerila

Spotted-Leaf Sonerila is a herb or shrublet, 20-30 cm tall, sometimes carrying runners. Stems are bluntly 4-sided, glandular finely velvet-hairy or becoming hairless. Leaf-stalk is 1-2 cm, finely velvet-hairy; leaf blade obovate to elliptic, 6 x 2.5-4.5 cm, papery to membranous, bristly. Leaves sometimes have white, round spots. Secondary veins are 1 or 2 on each side of midvein, base wedge-shaped to blunt and sometimes slightly oblique, margin minutely toothed with each tooth having a bristle, tip tapering to pointed. Flowers are borne at branch-ends, in scorpioid cymes, 1.5-3.5 cm, covered with flaky scales, flower-cluster-stalk is 0.7-2 cm, 4-angled. Flower-stalks are 1-3 mm, sparsely covered with flaky scales and with glandular trichomes. Hypanthium is funnel-shaped, 5-6 mm, 3-sided, 6-ribbed. Sepals are broadly triangular, less than 1 mm, tip pointed. Petals are purple, oblong, 5.5-10 x 2.5-6 mm, tip pointed with 1 glandular trichome at tip. Stamens are 3, equal, 5.5-12 mm; anthers 3-7 mm. Ovary is flask-shaped to cup-shaped, tip with a membranous 3-lobed crown. Capsules are bell-shaped, 3-sided. Spotted-Leaf Sonerila is found in hillsides, valleys, streamsides, shaded damp places, in Eastern Himalayas, in NE India, Bhutan, and SE Asia, at altitudes of 100-1300 m. Flowering: June-September.