FoI
Tranquebar Spur-Anther Flower
Share Foto info
Tranquebar Spur-Anther Flower
P Native Photo: S. Kasim
Common name: Tranquebar Spur-Anther Flower
Botanical name: Centranthera tranquebarica    Family: Orobanchaceae (Broomrape family)
Synonyms: Centranthera lepidota, Centranthera humifusa, Digitalis roxburghii

Tranquebar Spur-Anther Flower is a herb with stem erect, up to 15.5 cm high, often diffusely branched from base, slender, bristly on angles. It is named for Tranquebar (now Tharangambadi), a town in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. Leaves are linear, opposite below, alternate above, 0.9-2.8 x 0.2 cm, narrowed at base, subblunt at tip, pustular rough on both surfaces. Flowers are borne in axils of middle and upper leaves. Bracts oblong, 1-1.5 mm long. Bracteoles linear-oblong, 1-1.5 mm long. Calyx tube inflated, 4.5-5 mm long, bristly without. Flowers are 1.0-1.1 cm long; tube 6-9 mm long, dorsally dull purple, ventrally yellowish; lobes of limb yellow; lower lip 7 mm across. Style hairless. Seedpod is spherical, 4 x 4 mm, slightly shorter than calyx, tipped with withered style, hairless, brown; seeds oblong-wedge-shaped, 0.8 mm long, netveined. Tranquebar Spur-Anther Flower is is found in Indo-Malesia. Flowering: September-November.

Identification credit: S. Kasim Photographed in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,