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Pretty Narrow-Leaved Swertia
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Pretty Narrow-Leaved Swertia
P Native Herb lanceshaped Photo: Anurag Sharma
Common name: Pretty Narrow-Leaved Swertia • Mizo: Khawsik-damdawi
Botanical name: Swertia angustifolia var. pulchella    Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)
Synonyms: Ophelia pulchella, Swertia vacillans, Swertia affinis

Pretty Narrow-Leaved Swertia is a branched herb, with stem 4-angled, angles narrowly winged. Leaves are lanceshaped, 4 x 1.5 cm, estipulate, stalkless, chartaceous, hairless, 3-ribbed, base pointed-wedge-shaped, tip pointedly tapering. Flowers are borne in panicles up to 6 cm, in leaf-axils, also at branch-ends; flower-cluster-stalks up to 7 cm. Sepals are 4, lanceshaped, 5 mm, overlapping. Flower are white with blue or violetish spots distally on the lobes; tube 1.5 mm; petals 4, broadly elliptic, blunt, 9 x 4 mm, twisted; nectary basal, fringed at mouth and covered by a fringed with hairs scale; glands round, 1 mm wide. Stamens 4. Ovary 1-celled; ovules numerous, on parietal placentae; stigma 2-lobed. Pretty Narrow-Leaved Swertia is found in Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim.

Identification credit: Udayan Punakkal Photographed in Nelliyampathy, Kerala.

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