Strobilanthes lurida Wight, Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 4: t. 1515 1850. (syn: Didyplosandra lurida (Wight) Bremek.);
India (SW-Ghats (Kerala, Tamil Nadu)) as per Catalogue of life;
Common name: Lurid Coneflower • Malayalam: മുട്ടകന്നികുരിന്ജീ Muttakannikurinji

Large straggling branched shrubs; stem thick, virgate, swollen at nodes, glabrous. Leaves opposite, ca 20 x10 cm, ovate-elliptic, obtuse towards base, crenulate at margin, acuminate at apex, coriaceous, pilose, densely so beneath; petioles to 5 cm long, faintly hairy. Inflorescences spikes, from older stems, often from near ground, opposite, ascending, uninterrupted, compact, ca 8 x 4.5 cm, hispid; peduncles ca 4 cm long, usually with one or 2 joints; bracts orbicular, large, ca 2.5 x 2 cm, entire or wavy at margin, acute, emarginated or retuse at tip, ribbed, glabrous or glandular-pubescent, purple with black tinge; bracteoles 2, ligulate, ca 1.8 cm, acute, white. Calyx ca 2 cm long, 5-lobed, near to the base; lobes lanceolate, slightly enlarged in fruit with a row of bristles on abaxial face, finely ridged, ca 2.2 cm long. Corolla somewhat bilabiate, ca 3 cm long, exceeding large dull bracts, tubular-ventricose, purple, attractive; tube ca 2 mm long; ventricose portion widening above gradually, glabrous outside, hairy inside, 5-lobed; lobes ovate, obtuse, ca 3 mm long. Stamens 4, equal, united in pairs at base forming a staminal sheath, exserted; filaments ca 1.5 cm long; filaments and sheath glabrous. Ovary on a prominent disc, ca 2.5 mm; style slender, ca 2.5 cm long; stigma bilobed. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, ca 2 cm long, acuminate, glabrous, included in bracts; seeds 4, rounded, lenticular, ca 7 mm, smooth, glabrous on both faces, exareolate.

Flowering and fruiting: December-April
Evergreen and shola forests
Southern Western Ghats
(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi from India Biodiversity Portal)


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Strobilanthes luridus from Munnar – PKA10 : 6 posts by 5 authors. Attachments (6) – around 600 kb each.

Seen this plant at Shola forest near Munnar.
Bot. name: Strobilanthes luridus Wight;

Family: Acanthaceae
Habit: Large straggling shrub, 1 to 3.5m ht,
Local (Malayalam) Name: Muttakannikurinji


 

References:

POWO  IPNI  Catalogue of Life  The Plant List Ver.1.1 (Strobilanthes lurida Wight) GBIF (with high resolution specimens) Flowers of India  India Biodiversity Portal  Plant illustrations  Kerala Tourism