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Ceylon Gentian
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Ceylon Gentian
A Native Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Ceylon Gentian
Botanical name: Gentiana pedicellata subsp. zeylanica    Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)
Synonyms: Gentiana zeylanica, Gentiana quadrifaria var. zeylanica

Ceylon Gentian is a clustered herb with stem 4-angular, angles narrowly winged. Flower blue, 3.5 mm wide; tube 1.2 cm; petals 5, nearly round, to 2 x 2 mm, twisted, with folds in between. Sepals are 5, triangular, hairless, keeled, with a short sharp point, valvate. Stamens are 5, filaments elliptically dilated in the middle. Flowers are borne in 1-3-flowered cymes, up to 2 cm; bracts to 0.7 mm; flower-cluster-stalk up to 1.5 cm. Leaves are ovate, up to 4 x 3 mm, estipulate, stalkless, papery, hairless, 3-ribbed, midvein thickened, fused at base, base rounded, tip pointed, with a short sharp point, basal (rosette) leaves are smaller than stem leaves. Capsule oblong-flat, to 4.5 x 2.5 mm, surmounted by persistent sepals; stalk longer than sepals. Ceylon Gentian is found in West & South India and Sri Lanka.

Identification credit: Dinesh Valke, Kiranran R. Photographed in Mulligūr, Tamil Nadu.

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