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White Fairy Bells
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White Fairy Bells
P Native Photo: Paulmathi Vinod
Common name: White Fairy Bells
Botanical name: Disporum leucanthum    Family: Colchicaceae (Colchicum family)

White Fairy Bells is a perennial herb with long slender creeping runners 2-3 mm thick. Flowers are borne at branch-ends, in fascicles of 1-4, with smooth flower-stalks 1-17 mm long. Nodding, white, widely opening flowers are 2-3 cm in diameter. Tepals are broad inverted-lanceshaped or spoon-shaped, almost pointed at the tip, 1.3-2 cm long, 3-5 mm wide, smooth, only slightly sac-like at the base. Stamens are nearly as long as the tepals, sometimes shorter; filaments 8-11 mm long, white, hairless; anthers 3-5 mm long. Style is 9-12 mm long, shortly tri-fid at the tip. Stems are simple, 15-40 cm high, hairless, with 4-6 sheathing bracts in the lower part, and 3-5 leaves in the upper part. Leaves are oblong or elliptic, 3-8 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, pointed or tapering at the tip, broad-wedge-shaped or roundish at the base, hairless, with flat cells on margin; leaf-stalk short. White Fairy Bells is found in Darjeeling distt and Sikkim, at altitudes of 1000-2500 m, probably also in East Nepal.

Identification credit: Paulmathi Vinod Photographed in Singalila Forest, Darjeeling distt., WB.

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