Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Family
Food - Tender leaves and shoots are consumed as vegetable.
Bhutan, China, India, Nepal
Thrives in forests and open slopes of the Himalayas, grasslands by water, at an elevation of 2400-2800 m.
It is herbaceous annual robust plant up to 60 cm tall.
Stem is tall, thick but soft, erect.
Leaves are up to 20 cm long, narrow elliptic, with coarse, rounded teeth. They have a pointed tip and a slightly tailed base.
Flowers are pinkish-mauve with an orange-yellow and purple-dotted throat, up to 3 cm long. The lower sepal is broad and cylindrical, narrowing abruptly to a slender. The wings have slender, horn-like appendages along the inner margin and short, rounded side lobes. The upper petal has a narrow point. Bracts and sepals have long, gland-tipped awns.
Fruit is capsule that turn brown when mature and split open explosively to scatter seeds.
Flowering: July-September.