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Squirrel Tail
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Squirrel Tail
P Native elliptic Photo: Pravin Kawale
Common name: Squirrel Tail, rose-spotted white-flowered Justice wort, White Shrimp Plant • Bengali: পাটল বাসক Patela Basak • Gujarati: ગુલાબી અરડુસી Gulabi Aradusi • Hindi: हाड़पात Hadpat, मोकंदर Mokander, प्रमेहःहराती Pramehaharati • Kannada: ಕಾಡು ಕನಕಾಂಬರ Kaadu Kanakaambara, ಸಣ್ಣ ಅಡುಸೋಗೆ Sanna Adusoge • Konkani: धवो पोक्षो Dhavo Pokso • Malayalam: വെള്ളക്കുറിഞ്ഞി Vellakurunji • Marathi: गुलाबी अडुलसा Gulabi Adulasa • Odia: ମାଟି ଶାଗ Mati Saga • Rajasthani: गुलाबी अडूसा Gulabi Adusa • Sanskrit: श्वेत सहचरः Sveta-Sahacarah • Santali: ᱛᱟᱭᱟᱨ • Tamil: வேலிமூங்கில் Veli-Munkil • Telugu: తెల్ల రంతు Tellarantu Source: Names of Plants in India
Botanical name: Justicia betonica    Family: Acanthaceae (Acanthus family)
Synonyms: Adhatoda betonica, Justicia pallidior, Justicia cheiranthifolia
Squirrel tail is a shrubby perennial herb up to 1.5 m tall. Leaves are opposite, more or less narrowly lanceshaped to ovate or elliptic, 2-16 cm long, hairless or finely velvety, base somewhat decurrent along the leaf-stalk; margin entire to rounded toothed; leaf-stalk 0-2 cm long. Flowers are borne in branch-end spikes 2-12 cm long. Bracts are overlapping, white to pale green with more or less distinct darker green or purplish veins. Flowers are two-lipped, 0.8-1.4 cm long, usually on one side of the spike, white with 2 pinkish ridges or spots in the flower throat, finely velvety and with scattered stalked glands. Capsules are 1.1-2 cm long more or less densely velvety. Squirrel tail is native to Africa, India and Sri Lanka.
Identification credit: Pravin Kawale Photographed in Alibag, Maharashtra & Tamil Nadu.
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