Pseudobartsia glandulosa - Sticky Eyebright

Sticky Eyebright is an annual, erect herb, 9-18 cm tall, with stem round, glandular bristly, greenish in upper part, brownish-purple in lower part, branched or unbranched. It is a critically endangered herb, rediscovered recently (2020) after a gap of 179 years. Flowers are 2-lipped; tube cylindrical, 4.8-5.3 mm long, glandular bristly outside, velvet-hairy inside, yellow with brownish-purple tinge outside, yellow inside; upper lip obscurely galeate, broadly oblong, 2-lobed, divided slightly beyond middle, yellow with brownish-purple tinge outside, yellow inside; lobes 1.1-1.5 mm long, straight or slightly reflexed, tip rounded; lower lip 3-lobed, yellow on both side, sparsely velvet-hairy outside, hairless inside; lobes obovate-nearly round, 1.8-2 mm long, tip rounded. Stamens are 4, didynamous, inserted at slightly above the base of flower tube, enclosed by obscure galea, exerted slightly beyond the mouth of flower tube; filaments 4-4.5 mm long. Style is as long as filaments, sparsely velvet-hairy; stigma ovoid, yellow. Sepal-cup is bell-shaped, 5-lobed, green; tube 0.7-1 mm long, 10-nerved, glandular bristly outside, hairless inside; sepals unequal, 2-5 mm long, linear-narrow oblong, glandular bristly on both side. Flowers are borne in raceme, in leaf-axils as well as at branch-ends, stalked. Bract is single, leaf-like, glandular bristly; flower-stalk 0.5-1 mm long, elongated in fruits, glandular bristly. Leaves are opposite, palmately cut, 2-4- partite, 4-10 x 0.5-1.5 mm, stalkless, glandular bristly on both surface, midrib depressed above, prominent beneath; segments 3-8, linear-oblong or narrow inverted-lanceshaped or sword-shaped, tip pointed or blunt, margins entire, middle and lowers longer than others. Capsules are oblong, 2.7-3 x 1.8-2 mm, compressed, bristly, light green with brownish-purple tinge, tip slightly notched, with persistent style. Seeds are numerous, ellipsoid, brownish-black, netveined. Sticky Eyebright is very rare, known from Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Yunnan in China. Flowering: September-October.