Lepidagathis mitis Dalz.

Description:

Family: AcanthaceaeDistribution:Common on dry gravelly hard soils and rock crevices.Limited to Peninsular India.Suffrutescent herbs with perennial root stock and radially spreading branches; Leaves 3x1 cm linear-oblong, subacute,subsessile. Flowers 1-1.5am long white or pale pink, spotted with purple. Flower heads globose, denser, wooly and spiny.Spikes crowded at the base of the stem.Bracts and calyx lobes shortly spinous-mucronate; bracts broad, corolla lobes cyllindric below, suddenly expandedand 2 lipped,upper lip erect, 2lobed, lower 3 lobed, spotted, stamens 4 didynamous, disk annular, ovary 2 celled, stigma shortly 2 lobed, fruit a capsule.Reference: Flora of presidency of Madras by J.S Gamble, ENVIS, Flora of Nellore district By B.Suryanarayana &A.S Rao