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Violet Skullcap
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Violet Skullcap
ative Photo: Paulmathi Vinod
Common name: Violet Skullcap • Kannada: ಕಾಡುತುಳಸಿ Kaadutulasi • Malayalam: കാട്ടുതുളസി Kaattuthulasi • Nepali: कालो भेरी Kaalo Bheree • Tamil: நோவு பச்சிலை Novu Pacchilai • Telugu: అడవి పుదీనా Adavi Pudina Source: Names of Plants in India
Botanical name: Scutellaria violacea    Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Synonyms: Scutellaria floribunda, Scutellaria nodulosa, Scutellaria violacea var. glabra

Violet Skullcap is an erect straggling herbs with hairy stem. Leaves are up to 7 x 5 cm, ovate, pointed, toothed, base heart-shaped, hairy, stalk 4-5 cm long. Flowers are borne in racemes 15 cm long, glandular hairy, bracts ovate, 3 mm long. Flowers are paired, long-stalked, calyx hairless, upper sepal 7 x 5 mm, saccate, lower lip 4 x 3 mm. Flowers are violet to pale blue, 1.5 cm long, lateral lobes of lower lip shorter, hairless, filaments frilly at base, anthers bearded, confluent. Nutlets spherical, tuberculate. Violet Skullcap is found in the Himalayas, from Nepal to Bhutan, at altitudes of 1400-1800 m, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.

Identification credit: Paulmathi Vinod Photographed at Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu.

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