Strobilanthes kunthianus
Kurinchi

     Strobilanthes kunthianus, flowers gregariously over large tracts of mountain slopes, which used to look blue. In Sangam poems, this flower is mentioned as 'kurinchi'.

Plant Morphology

     The Plant 'Morphology', is the branch of Botany which is concerned with the structure of plants. There are two branches of morphology, external morphology and anatomy. External morphology has to do with the form, arrangement and relationship of the organs of the plants and with their structures in so far as they may be studied without cutting  the plant.

Cross-section of leaf

   A leaf is often referred as a food factory of the plant, as it is in this organ that the bulk of photosynthesis takes place. Leaves show a wide range of shapes and sizes. In the cross-section of a dicot leaf it shows the different parts of the leaf namely the epidermis which covers the upper surface (upper epidermis) and lower surface (lower epidermis) of the leaf. The epidermis is interrupted by a large number of openings called 'Stomata'. The tissue enclosed between the two epidermal layers is called the 'Mesophyll'. The mesophyll consists of 'Palisade parenchyma' and Spongy parenchyma. The vascular bundles i.e. the xylem and the phloem in the leaf are located in the midrib and the veins.

Inflorescence

      The branch system of the floral region bearing a group of flowers is called 'Inflorescence'. Thus depending on the mode of branching different kinds of inflorescences have come into existance, and these may primarily be classified into two distinct groups, viz. 'Racemose' (or) indefinite and 'Cymose' (or) definite. The model of 'spike', 'panicle' in Racemose, and 'simple cyme', 'dichasial cyme', 'scorpioid cyme', 'helicoid cyme' in the Cymose are exhibited along with the model of the section of flower, pollination in salvia and fertilisation, fruits and seeds are displayed in the morphological show-case, in the Systematic Botany Gallery.

   The Helicoid Cyme : It is a type of 'Cymose inflorescence'. Here the inflorescence is with one axis at each branching, produced by suppression of successive axis on the same side, thus causing the sympodium to be spirally twisted.