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Violet Skullcap
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Violet Skullcap
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Violet Skullcap • Malayalam: കാട്ടുതുളസി kattuthulasi • Tamil: நோவு பச்சிலை novu pacchilai
Botanical name: Scutellaria violacea    Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Synonyms: Scutellaria floribunda, Scutellaria nodulosa, Scutellaria violacea var. glabra

Violet Skullcap is an erect straggling herbs with hairy stem. Leaves are up to 7 x 5 cm, ovate, pointed, toothed, base heart-shaped, hairy, stalk 4-5 cm long. Flowers are borne in racemes 15 cm long, glandular hairy, bracts ovate, 3 mm long. Flowers are paired, long-stalked, calyx hairless, upper sepal 7 x 5 mm, saccate, lower lip 4 x 3 mm. Flowers are pale blue, 1.5 cm long, lateral lobes of lower lip shorter, hairless, filaments frilly at base, anthers bearded, confluent. Nutlets spherical, tuberculate. Violet Skullcap is found in the Himalayas, from Nepal to Bhutan, at altitudes of 1400-1800 m, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.

Identification credit: E.S. Santhosh Kumar Photographed at Gudampara, Munnar, Kerala.

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