Botanical name: Cyanotis fasciculata    Family: Commelinaceae (Dayflower family)
Synonyms: Cyanotis decumbens, Cyanotis rosea, Cyanotis rupestris

Nilwanti is an annual herb with stems prostrate, clustered, covered with cottony hairs. Flowers are few, stalkless, flower tube 6 mm long, bell-shaped, petals blunt, blue; filaments 8 mm long, bearded; style densely hairy, bulged below the stigma. Sepals are 5 x 2 mm, united at the base, not keeled, hairy. Flowers are borne in few-flowered cymes in leaf-axils, solitary, carried on flower-cluster-stalks 2 cm long. Bracts are 2 x 0.5 cm, lanceshaped, tapering; bracteoles 2-4 pairs, 10 x 4 mm, sickle shaped, pointed. Leaves are up to 3 x 0.7 cm, lanceshaped, curved, folded, rounded at base, long-hairy; sheath 1.5 cm long, saclike. Capsules are 2.5 mm long, hairy at tip. Nilwanti is endemic to Western Ghats. Flowering: October-January.

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The flower labeled Nilwanti is ...