874

Strobilanthes barbatus Nees

Family	:	Acanthaceae
Flowering and fruiting period	:	September-December
Distribution	:	Western Ghats
Distribution in Kerala	:	Kannur, Kozhikkode, Kottayam, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Malappuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad, Idukki
Habitat	:	Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
Endemic/Exotic	:	Western Ghats
Uses	:	may prove to be a major therapy in curing some diseases
Key botanical characters : Gregarious shrubs, stems quadrangular, often winged, sulcate, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite in unequal pairs,  elliptic-lanceolate, acute at apex, decurrent at base, entire, crenulate or repand at margin, coriaceous, glabrous,  lineolate above; Inflorescences spikes, , sometimes subsessile 2-4-fascicled heads interrupted at base, dense-flowered; bract imbricate, orbicular, caudate at apex, green, glabrous when young, ciliate and glandular-hairy in fruit, grooved in adaxial face, recurved; bracteoles ovate- lanceolate, pubescent, ciliate. Calyx lobes subequal, linear-lanceolate, minutely ciliate or not. Corolla tubular-campanulate, glabrous outside, hairy inside, white; tubular base slightly shorter than upper campanulate portion; limb nearly erect; lobes 5, ovate-acute, ciliate. staminal sheath extending beyond the cylinder base; shorter pair ca 3 mm long, hairy only at base; hairy throughout; filaments arising from different levels on staminal sheath; staminode absent,. Capsules elliptic2-seeded; seeds obovate-orbicular.