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Translucent Cobra Lily
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Translucent Cobra Lily
P Native Photo: S. Jeevith
Common name: Translucent Cobra Lily
Botanical name: Arisaema translucens    Family: Araceae (Arum family)

Translucent Cobra Lily is a perennial herb with pseudostem up to 1 foot long. This plant has been rediscovered in 2017, after a gap of 84 years. Flower reaches up to halfway length of the stem; flower-cluster-stalk 12-14 x 0.2-0.8 cm, light yellow-pink. Spathe is 7.5-9 cm long including limb; tube cylindric, 3-3.2 x 1.2-1.5 cm, hoodlike at mouth, translucent and striped with about 30 longitudinal lines. Mouth is inverted-heart-shaped-obovate; tip with thread-like tail, tail up to 2.5 cm long, deflexed. Male spadix is stalkless, 4.5 cm long. Female spadix is stalkless, cylindrical, longer than the tube; appendix up to 5 cm long. Underground stem is a spherical tuber, 2-2.5 x 3-4 cm across. Leaf is solitary, digitatelly compound, leaf-stalk 20-30 cm long, pale purple mottled with brown and white; leaflets 9-11, lanceshaped to oblong-inverted-lanceshaped; blade 8-15 x 2-3.5 cm, base narrowed, tip tapering, margin entire- curled, hairless, pale green above, glossy below. Translucent Cobra Lily is endemic to Thia Shola forest, Tamil Nadu. Flowering: April-June.

Identification credit: S. Jeevith, P. Samydurai, C. Rajasekar Photographed in Carrington Shola, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu.

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