தாதரி பூ Thathari Poo

Description

Fire Flame Bush is a spreading, deciduous shrub, small in size but very conspicuous on dry, rocky hillsides. It is up to 3 m tall with spreading stems. Leaves nearly stalkless, 4-11 x 2-4 cm, ovate-lanceshaped or lanceshaped, subleathery, whitish velvety woolly and finely orangish- or black-dotted beneath. Flowers are crimson, slightly zygomorphic, in 2-16-flowered in leaf-axils cymes; flower-stalks to 1 cm long. Calyx tube 1-1.5 cm long, tubular; sepals 6, short, more or less triangular, alternating with small callous appendages. Petals are 6, red, 3-4 mm long, lanceshaped-tapering. Stamens are 12, inserted near the bottom of the calyx tube, 0.5-1.5 cm long, prominently protruding out. Ovary is 4-6 mm long, oblong, 2-celled; ovules many; style 0.7-1.5 cm long. Capsules are 0.6-1 x 0.25-0.4 cm, ellipsoid, included in the calyx. Seeds numerous, trigonous-ovoid. Fire Flame Bush is found in Sri Lanka, South Konkan and on the Ghats and ascends the Himalayas up to 200-1800 m, but is rarer in South India.