Sopakha Panax is a robust perennial herb, 80-130 cm
tall. It is named for the the village Sopakha in Sikim. Stem is
cylindrical, erect, stout, 50-90 cm long, scales at base, deciduous.
Leaves are exstipulate, palmately compound, 4-5 per stem, whorled
towards the stem tip, 20-38 cm long, stalked; leaf-stalks hairless,
stout, 10-20 cm long; leaflets 5, inverted-lanceshaped to narrowly
elliptic, 7-16 cm long, 2.5-5 cm broad; leaflet-stalks, 1-2.5 cm long;
tip with a tail, up to 4 cm long; base rounded, narrowed or oblique;
margin minutely toothed, some biminutely toothed; densely bristly on
upper surface. Flowers are borne in branch-end umbels, carried on stout
flower-cluster-stalks, 15-30 cm long. Flowers are 50-65 per umbel,
bracteate, andromonoecious, actinomorphic, epigynous, 3-4 mm long;
bracts large, leafy or linear up to 0.5-2.0 cm long, flower-stalked;
flower-stalks 1-2.5 cm long, hairless; sepals 5, lanceshaped, hairless,
alternate to petals, green. Petals are 5, polypetalous, lanceshaped,
about 3.0 mm long and ca. 2.5 mm wide, hairless, deciduous, white;
stamens 5, 3-4 mm long, filament free; anther oblong, about 3 mm long
and about 2 mm wide, dorsifixed, bilobed. Fruit is a berry, 2-3 lobed
in transverse section, nearly spherical, about 7 x 6 mm, lower portion
red, upper portion black. Sopakha Panax is found in Sikkim. Flowering
in April-May
Identification credit: Momang Taram
Photographed in North Sikkim.
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The flower labeled Sopakha Panax is ...