FoI
Stinking Bonnet Bellflower
Share Foto info
Stinking Bonnet Bellflower
ative Photo: Ramesh Kadyan
Common name: Stinking Bonnet Bellflower
Botanical name: Codonopsis foetens    Family: Campanulaceae (Bell flower family)
Synonyms: Codonopsis foetens subsp. foetens

Stinking Bonnet Bellflower is a perennial herb with stems erect or ascending, 20-40 cm tall, hairy. Leaves are on main stems alternate, mostly yellow scaly, only several upper ones green and ordinary, those on branches opposite or subopposite, all ordinary leaves with stalk 2-3 mm. Leaves are heart-shaped or ovate, 5-9 x about 5 mm, both surfaces rather densely white hairy, margin entire, tip blunt. Sepals are ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, about 8 x 4-5.5 mm, rather densely hairy, margin recurved, entire. Flowers are pale blue or pale purple with dark purple veins, bell-shaped or broadly bell-shaped, 2-3 cm. Petals are somewhat circular, 8-12 mm, tips blunt or pointed. Capsules are obconical at inferior part, conical at superior part, about 2 x 1.5 cm. Seeds brown-yellow, ellipsoid or oblong, about 1 mm, smooth. Stinking Bonnet Bellflower is found on alpine scrub, crevices in Eastern Himalayas, at altitudes of 3900-4600 m. Flowering: July-September.

Identification credit: Sabita Dahal Photographed in Arunachal Pradesh & East Sikkim.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,