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Nilgiri Fingerroot
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Nilgiri Fingerroot
P Native Herb elliptic Photo: Anurag Sharma
Common name: Nilgiri Fingerroot, Nilgiri Orchid Ginger
Botanical name: Boesenbergia tiliifolia    Family: Zingiberaceae (Ginger family)
Synonyms: Kaempferia tiliifolia, Gastrochilus tiliifolius

Nilgiri Fingerroot is a small herb with very short leafy shoot, 3-4-leaved. Leaf blade upto 40 x 20 cm, elliptic, pointed, slightly hairy on midrib below; leaf-stalks 5-12 cm long; ligule about 5 mm long, of 2 triangular lobes. Inflorescence is nearly stalkless, enclosed by the leaf sheaths, densely flowered. Bracts are up to 5 cm long, linear-lanceshaped; bracteoles as long as bracts but narrower. Calyx about 2 cm, bifid. Flowers are pink, tube exceeding the bracts; petals about 1.5 cm, oblong. Lateral staminodes rather shorter and broader than flower lobes, mottled purple. Lip about 2.5 x 2 cm, fiddle-shaped, tip slightly bilobed. Filaments 1 cm long; anthers 5 mm, with a short reflexed bilobed crest. Nilgiri Fingerroot is endemic to India.

Identification credit: M. Sabu Photographed in Hebri, Karnataka.

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