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Hop Coneflower
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Hop Coneflower
P Native Photo: P.S. Sivaprasad
Common name: Hop Coneflower • Marathi: अकरा Akra • Tamil: கருங் குரிஞ்ஜி Karun Kurinji
Botanical name: Strobilanthes lupulina    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Strobilanthes lupulinus, Nilgirianthus lupulinus, Ruellia lupulina

Hop Coneflower is a shrub with hairless branchlets. It is so-named because its flower clusters resemble Common Hop flower clusters. Flowers are borne in spikes 2 x 1.5 cm, in leaf-axils, 2-3 together on trichotomous flower-cluster-stalk. Flower-spikes are ovoid or spherical. Bracts are 1.4 x 1.1 cm, round or obovate, concave, hairless, whitish, tinged with pink. Flowers are 4-10 in each spike; sepals 6 x 2 mm, united to the middle, hairless; flower 2.5 cm long, white; staminal sheath fringed with hairs. Leaves are 8-13 x 6 cm, elliptic, tip tapering, base narrowed, hairless. Capsules are 10 x 5 mm, hairless; seeds 3 mm, biconvex, hairy along the margins. Hop Coneflower is endemic to Peninsular India. Flowering: October-December.

Identification credit: P.S. Sivaprasad Photographed in Thenmala, Kollam distt., Kerala.

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