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Opposite-Leaf Lindernia
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Opposite-Leaf Lindernia
A Native Photo: Surajit Koley
Common name: Opposite-Leaf Lindernia
Botanical name: Bonnaya oppositifolia    Family: Linderniaceae (Lindernia family)
Synonyms: Lindernia oppositifolia, Bonnaya minima, Vandellia oppositifolia

Opposite-Leaf Lindernia is an annual herb 8-17 cm tall. Stems are laxly branched, four-edged, erect or rising up, hairless. Leaves are pinnately veined, stalkless, narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong, tip somewhat pointed to pointed, 1.1-4.2 cm long, 4-9 mm wide, margin rounded toothed-sawtoothed, with 10-18 pairs of teeth, hairless. Inflorescence is 3-7 cm long, with 4-10 flowers, opposite each other in most part, usually 1-2 flowers solitary in basal part of inflorescence; each flower with a subtending bract, 3 mm long. Solitary flower opposite to leaf-like bract in basal part of inflorescence; flower-opposed bracts linear-elliptic, 5-10 mm long. Flower-stalks are rising up in flower and young fruit, flower-stalks in basal part of inflorescence deflexed in mature fruit, 4-6 mm long. Sepal-cup is deeply 5-lobed, 2.5-4.7 mm long in flower, 3.2-4.8 mm long in fruit, hairless. Flowers are pale mauve to pale pink, 4-8 mm long; ventral lip with 3 rounded lobes, central lobe ~3 mm long, 4 mm wide; dorsal lip broadly oblong, tip blunt, 3.7 mm long, 2 mm wide. Stamens are 2; filaments 2 mm long; anther 1 mm long. Staminodes club-shaped, pale blue to white, style 4.5 mm long. Capsule is cylindrical, tip pointed, 7-9 mm long, 1.2-2 mm wide, 2-2.2 times as long as the persistent sepal-cup. Opposite-Leaf Lindernia is found in NE India, Bangladesh, South India, Nepal, Sri Lanka.

Identification credit: Aaratrik Pal Photographed in Hooghly, West Bengal.

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