|
|
| |
Brachystelma swarupa
|
| |
|
| |
Family:
ASCLEPIADACEAE
|
| |
Citation: Brachystelma swarupa Kishore & Goyder, Kew Bull. 56: 210. 2001.
|
| |
Malayalam Name(s):
Pakeda-kizhangu
|
| |
Tamil name(s):
|
| |
English name(s):
|
| |
Description:
Perennial tuberous herbs; stem tuber dorsiventrally compressed, prolate, elliptic, ca 8 x 6 x 3 cm; shoots erect, 30-60 cm tall, unbranched or sparsely branched, purplish brown, puberulent; buried part of stem 5-10 cm, smooth and white. Internodes 2-9 cm long, puberulent. Leaves opposite, decussate, 6-12 x 0.3-0.7 cm, narrowly lanceolate, base acute to attenuate, tip acute, margins puberulent; lateral nerves 20-22 pairs, faint subsessile, with a glandular scale on either side at the base in the axils, midrib puberulent, beneath, narrowly grooved above. Inflorescence terminal or axillary sessile umbelliform cyme, initially appearing pedunculate, but later flowers are pushed aside by the actively growing main stem. Flowers 24-28, drooping, developing centripetally, 3-4 mature flowers at a time; bracts and bracteoles linear, tip curved; pedicels filiform, 3.5-4.0 cm long, puberulent, becoming lengthened, erect and stout after fertilization. Sepals 5, 1.0 x 0.5 mm, narrowly ovate-acuminate, puberulent without. Corolla 6 mm across; tube short, deeply 5-partite, fully reflexed when mature; petals 2.5 x 1.0 mm long, glabrous, horizontally striate or spotted purplish-brown, elliptic-ovate, acute; 4-6 long cilia present near the rim of the tube, cilia 2-3 mm long. Gynostegium pale yellow, obtusely pentagonal, rarely purple spotted, 1.2 x 1.0 mm. Staminal corona pale yellow, lobes in two series; outer scales 5, alternating with stamens, taller than the gynostegium, 0.5 mm broad, connate and cupular, cup 5-ridged at the base, alternating grooves hairy outside, greenish along the margins, erect, tip bifid, glabrous, margins long- ciliate and keeled within; inner lobes 5, opposite the stamens and the ciliate grooves of the outer coronal cup, dark green, shorter than the outer coronal scales and the stamens, completely fused with the staminal filaments and without a free tip. Anther deep yellow, anther-wings present; pollinaria erect, corpuscle horny, brown, sagittate, provided with a large wing on either side; caudicles ascending, hyaline; pollinia, yellow, ovoid. Carpels 2, 1 mm long, narrow, free, style absent, stigma head pentangular, discoid, placed directly on the carpels, 0.7 mm across. Follicles 2, rarely one, 6-9 x 0.25-0.4 cm, narrow, terete-lanceolate, gradually narrowing towards the tip, slightly curved; placenta longitudinally grooved; fruiting pedicel straight; seeds 7 x 2 mm, narrowly elliptic, embryonic area yellow, margin winged, wing revolute, thick; coma 2.5 cm long, white.
|
| |
Habit:
Herb
|
| |
Flowering & Fruiting:
March-June
|
| |
District(s):
Idukki
|
| |
Medicinal:
|
| |
Habitat:
Dry deciduous forests
|
| |
Distribution:
Southern Western Ghats
|
| |
Aquatic:
No
|
| |
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
| |
Saprophyte:
No
|
| |
Stem parasite:
No
|
| |
Root parasite:
No
|
| |
Flower colour(s):
Purple, Brown
|
| |
Weed:
No
|
| |
Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
|
| |
Exotic:
No
|
| |
Garden:
No
|
| |
Edible:
No
|
| |
Vegetable:
No
|
| |
Endemic to:
Southern Western Ghats
|
| |
IUCN status:
|
| |
Altitude:
600-800
|
| |
Localities:
|
|