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East-Himalayan Leptodermis
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East-Himalayan Leptodermis
P Native Photo: Tabish
Common name: East-Himalayan Leptodermis
Botanical name: Leptodermis stapfiana    Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)

East-Himalayan Leptodermis is a shrub that can be 20 cm to 2.4 m tall, often stunted and variable in habitat. Flowers are funnel-shaped, white to deep maroon or violet, sometimes darkening with age or bicolored, velvet-hairy outside; tube 9-11.2 mm, petals 1.2-3 mm. Stigmas are 4-5. Sepal-tube is virtually absent, sepals ovate oblong sometimes irregular, 0.8-1.3 mm, fringed with hairs finely toothed. Flowers are borne on current growth, in compact clusters of up to 20 flowers at shoot tip at upper nodes and at tip of any lateral shoots, rarely whole upper shoot a single dense inflorescence or all cymules well-separated. Uppermost bract pairs are often shorter than its flowers, though usually still leaf like. Leaves are oblong-lanceshaped or elliptic, up to 5 x 2 cm though sometimes not larger than 1.5 cm by 6 mm, pointed, narrowed at base, velvet-hairy above and beneath; main veins 3-5 pairs; leaf-stalks up to 5 mm, velvet-hairy. East-Himalayan Leptodermis is found from Nepal to East Himalaya, at altitudes of 1400-3500 m. Flowering: May-September.

Identification credit: J.M. Garg Photographed at Shirui Hill, Ukhrul, Manipur.

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