Thesium wightianum Wall. [Cat. 4037. 1831, nom. nud.] ex Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 230. 1886.

Herbs, perennial, evergreen, root-parasites, erect, up to 20 cm high; branches slender, short or straggling, arising from a wider root-stock. Leaves linear-lanceolate, acute at apex, sometimes curved inwards, up to 7 mm long, yellowish green. Flowers: solitary, axillary, never terminal, bisexual, white or yellowish white; bracts and bracteoles always shorter than the fruits, sometimes absent; perianth-lobes 5 (or 4), more or less conical, broad at base; stamens glabrous; filaments equal to the perianth-lobes; styles short; stigma capitate. Fruit a nut, spherical, ribbed, crowned by persistent perianth.

Fl. & Fr. April – June.

Distrib. India: Western Ghats of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Endemic.

Notes. Chromosome number: n = 20 (Virendrakumar & Subramanyam, Chromosome atlas of flowering plants of the Indian subcontinent, Vol. 1. Dicotyledons, 1986).