I am in agreement that it is a *Melastoma* and not *Osbeckia* which is the commonest genus of the Melastomataceae encountered along the Himalaya - there is a line drawing of *O.stellata* in 'Flora Simlensis' showing the stamens all similar 8-10 which helps to distinguish the genus from *Melastoma* which has stamens of two kinds; 5-7 longer with purple anthers & 2 yellow swellings plus 5-7 shorter with yellow anthers. *This characteristic is difficult to see in the single image not in close-up from Cherrapunji.* Other differences include the feathery-haired calyces which can be seen or at look sufficiently different to those of the main Osbeckias from the region.
In 'Flowers of the Himalaya' it says there are two species of this genus in the Himalaya. 'Enumeration of the Flowering Plants of Nepal' lists *M.malabathricum* and *M.normale* - with the former species recorded from Tropical Himalayan foothills around 200m. Whereas the latter 900-1800m. As does 'Flora of Bhutan' - though the differences in the key are minimal. *But it comes as no surprise to find that M.normale has been relegated to a synonym of Melstoma malabathricum.* *I think I probably saw this ten years ago during my only visit to the Meghalaya a decade ago (I was hugely disappointed that it did not rain when I was there) close to wonderful Nohkalikai Falls. * It thus On Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 11:41:32 AM UTC+1, Shobha Halwe-Chavda wrote: > Dear Friends, > Flower for Id pl. > Location - Cherrapunji > Date - 16.10.2016 > Regards, > Shobha Chavda > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
