Flowers of India is aimed at having information about all the flowers found in India, with their common names, especially in Indian languages, pictures and habitat, easily available in one place. This is meant to be a place you can look at if you saw a flower and wanted to know more about it. Knowing more about flowers, and then going out and having a look at them, will be more like communing with nature. Flowers of India
Blue Violet Flowers
African Violet
Botanical name: Saintpaulia spp. Family: Gesneriaceae (Gloxinia family)
Saintpaulia is the genus to which the immensely popular "African Violet" belongs. The genus is named after Baron Walter von Saint Paul Illaire, the district commissioner of Tanga province who discovered the plant in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in Africa in 1892 and sent seeds back to his father, an amateur botanist in Germany. African violets grow from 6-15 cm tall and can be anywhere from 6-30 cm wide. The leaves are rounded to oval, 2.5-8.5 cm long with a 2-10 cm petiole, finely hairy, and with a fleshy texture. The flowers are 2-3 cm diameter, with a five-lobed velvety "petals", and grow in clusters of 3-10 or more on slender stalks (peduncles) Flower colour in the wild species varies between violet, purple, pale blue and white. African violets are well adapted to indoor culture, either under lights or on a windowsill. If kept with reasonable humidity and warmth, provided with regular moisture and light fertilization, they will provide very rewarding amounts of bloom.
Photographed in the Garden of Five Senses, Delhi.
Alpine Forget-Me-Not
Botanical name: Myosotis alpestris Family: Boraginaceae (forget-me-not family)
This small blue flower, with a yellow eye, is the charming forget me not flower, and is quite a common wildflower in the Himalayas. Its a small flower, usually only a few millimetres across with shape somewhat similar to that of Vinca or Parijata (Bengali Shefali) flower. Except that the petals are rounded and flat, arranged in a tight circle, giving the flower perfect round shape. The name "Forget-me-not" was borrowed from Old French "ne m'oubliez pas" and first used in English in 1532. In the 15th century Germany, it was supposed that the wearers of the flower will not be forgotten by their lovers. Legend has it that in medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along the side of a river. He picked a posy of flowers, but because of the weight of his armour he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the posy to his loved one and shouted "Forget-me-not". This is a flower connected with romance and tragic fate. It was often worn by ladies as a sign of faithfulness and enduring love. While they are found in several shades of blue, some species, like this one, are a clear sky blue, and are described as bringing the intense Blue of Heaven down to earth (Among the Tibetans by Isabella L. Bird). Surely the flowers evokes feelings of perfection and true essence, giving the flower its other name, True Blue. Alpine Forget-Me-Not is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to Bhutan, at altitudes of 3000-4300 m. Flowering: June-August.
Identification credit: Akhila Sinha
Photographed in Valley of Flowers, Uttarakhand.
Amazon Blue
Botanical name: Otacanthus caeruleus Family: Scrophulariaceae (Dog flower family)
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Amazon Blue is a free branching, spreading, small shrub with bluish mauve flowers with a white eye. Each flower has two conspicuous petals. Leaves are very fragrant with a smell resembling pine scent. It prefers acid soil. Amazon Blue is native to South America. In Indian climate it is an evergreen shrub that blooms most of the year.
Identification credit: Ajinkya Gadave
Photographed in Pune, Maharashtra.
American Mint
Botanical name: Hyptis suaveolens Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Synonyms: Ballota suaveolens
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American Mint is a rigid annual herb of aggressive nature. It starts its vegetative phase either from perrenating rootstock or seeds, with the onset of monsoon rains. It can attain height of approximately 2.5 m within a growing season. Its stem is quadrate and bears hair. Leaves are either ovate or obovate. Leaves are generally 3-5 cm long and 2-4 cm wide with serrulate margins and a long stalk. Lower surface of the leaves bears hairs; petioles up to 3 cm long. Flowering starts at an early age of 2-3 months. It produces copious blue flowers in small cymes along branch that ends with reduced leaves. Sepal tube is hairy in nature and is nearly 0.5 cm long in flower while it enlarges to 1 cm long in fruit and become ribbed. Flowers are blue, 2-lipped, about 8 mm long, with a limb 5 mm in diameter. The flower has 4 stamens. American Mint flowers are pollinated by a large number of pollinators leading to enormous seed production. American mint is native to the American continent, but now naturalized almost throughout the world. Flowering: October-February.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke & Shaista Ahmad
Photographed at Kharghar Hills, Navi Mumbai & Goa.
American Wisteria
Botanical name: Wisteria frutescens Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonyms: Wisteria macrostachya, Wisteria frutescens var. macrostachya
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American Wisteria is a woody, deciduous, perennial climbing vine, native to the wet forests and stream banks of the southeastern United States. American Wisteria can grow up to 15 m long over many supports via powerful clockwise-twining stems. It produces dense clusters of blue-purple, two-lipped, 2-cm-wide flowers on racemes 2-6 inches long in late spring to early summer. These are the smallest racemes produced by any member of the Wisteria family. This size of the racemes is considered small in comparison to some other more showy Wisteria species. Leaves are shiny, dark-green, pinnately compound, 4-12 inches in length. The leaves bear 9-15 oblong leaflets that are each 2-6 cm long. It also bears numerous poisonous, brown, bean-like seed pods 2-4 inches long that mature in summer and persist until winter.
Photographed in India International Centre, Delhi.
Arrow Leaf Pondweed
