Bark
Smooth, greenish-brown bark covering cylindrical (terete) older stems, while the younger flowering stalks (peduncles) are slightly four-angled and heavily coated in sticky, multicellular glandular hairs.
Strobilanthes integrifolia
Syn. Endopogon integrifolius
IUCN Red List
Not Evaluated
(NE)
Local name
- Entire-Leaf Coneflower (English)
- Gurgi (Kannada)
- Wayti (Marathi)
Shrub type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Acanthaceae
2m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Opposite, elliptic-lanceolate leaves (10–20 cm long) that are dark green above and pale steel-grey beneath, featuring sparingly toothed or completely entire (smooth) margins and distinctly winged, leaf-like stalks.
Flower
Strong-smelling, funnel-shaped light violet to blue flowers (3–4 cm long) with 5 spreading lobes, tightly arranged along simple or compound spikes covered in sticky, glandular hairs.
Fruit / Seeds
Small, oblong, hairless woody capsules that split open when dry to release four small, flattened seeds.
Did you know?
Like its famous Strobilanthes relatives, including the Neelakurinji, this species exhibits semelparous masting, synchronously flowering after several years of vegetative growth, producing abundant seeds, and dying shortly after reproduction.
Distribution
India