Helixanthera intermedia Danser, Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg III, 10: 317 1929. ;

India: Evergreen forests, on a limited number of hosts, i. e. Cinnamomum spp., Helicteres isora, Machilus macrantha, etc. Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as per BSI Flora of India;


Glabrous shrubs. Leaves ovate, obtuse, coriaceous, base obtuse, truncate, or sub-cordate ; petiole 1 cm long. Racemes 7 cm long, axillary, many-flowered; pedicel 7 mm long, slender, glabrous. Flower buds 4-angled and curved; corolla lobes 4, straight, purplish pink, free to the base; stamens 4; filaments attached below the middle of the corolla; stigma globose.

Flowering and fruiting: February-March
Evergreen and moist deciduous forests
Southern Western Ghats (endemic)

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi


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ANJUL02/02 Helixanthera sp. for identification : 9 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (8)
Family: Loranthaceae
Date: 20th June 2015
Place: Chikamagalur, Karnataka

Habit: Parastic plant
Habitat: Shola forest


Key to species.


Can this be Helixanthera intermedia Danser?


Please check KEY in BSI – http://efloraindia.nic.in/efloraindia/taxonList.action?id=11&type=3

I fail to find bract character in the attached images, fail to guess petiole-peduncle-pedicel-etc sizes. Perhaps there is a type-error in BSI petiole size – 
However, id seems to be possible.


I agree with … though our earlier record tell a different story – efi thread which continued in http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/Loranthaceae/


It seems to be Helixanthera obtusata


the plant is Helixanthera intermedia (Wt.) Dans. It closely resembles H. obtusata in not having furfuraceous hairs on young branchlets and leaves. 
Confirmed by the following specialist in Loranthaceae

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it is my pleasure to share a few images of Helixanthera intermedia (Loranthaceae)
Habit: Epiphytic
Habitat: Shola forest
Sighting: Mullaianagiri, Chikmagalur, Karnataka about 1700 ms
Date: 18-06-2015


I wish I could  have included these images in the Flora of India Volume 23.


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Helixanthera wallichiana of Loranthaceae family, an endemic, rare, hemi-parasitic shrub from Silent Valley National Park, Kerala
The Picture was taken during a field visit in April 2007.
Habitat picture is available @
http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/Loranthaceae/images/HelixantheraWa…
This habit picture was taken by my friend Dr K A Subramanian (Scientist C ZSI, Kolcatta) during the same field trip. 


Nice picture …, but pls check flower size. I think this to be H. obtusata. Flowers appear to be about 2 cm long and with narrow long lobes. H. wallichiana flowers are just 5-6 mm long with short lobes.


I will recheck the same when I get live specimen.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to collect specimens during the field visit. I had gone with IISc team who had permission only to collect amphibians and reptiles, hence I don’t have specimen with me.

From my field notebook I recollect that the flowers were around 1cm (max 1.5cm no precise measurement is available) – long. 
When I rerun the key, I could learnt that H. obtusatus branchlets inflorescence and/or sometimes leaves more or less furfuraceous (Made of or covered with scaly particles, such as dandruff) and leaf base is rounded/ acute/auricled whereas, in my specimen leaves, branchlets and inflorescence were glabrous as mentioned in the key provided by Gamble (described as L wallichiana) and the leaf base was narrowed at the base. 
I had experimented and experienced a variation in flower length of flowers of Dendrophthoe falcata and D nilgirica from populations from KMTR (Tirunelveli) and the Nilgiries (Priya Davidars JBNHS paper). I had presented this work in the 5th International Canopy conference held in Bangalore in 2009.

By the way, the Disperis you have there is Disperis zeylanica and not neilgherense.
I want both flowers


May pl. recheck in view of feedback in another thread


If the pic at http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/Loranthaceae/images/HelixantheraWall1.jpg is of same species in this thread, more than 4 pairs of lateral nerves determine it cannot be H. wallichiana (Schult.f.) Danser.


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