Common Name: HELIOTROPE FAMILY Habit: Annual or perennial herb [shrub, tree, woody vine], generally hairy, often bristly or strigose and/or glandular. Stem: prostrate to erect, branched. Leaf: simple, alternate, generally entire; stipules 0. Inflorescence: 1-many cymes, generally coiled, or flowers 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; calyx lobes 5, generally free to base; corolla lobes 5, fused, generally rotate or bell-shaped, appendages 0; stamens 5, epipetalous; ovary superior, subtended by disk-like nectary, chambers generally 4, style terminal, stigmatic head conical with basal ring-shaped stigma and sterile tip. Fruit: dry or fleshy, generally 4-seeded, sometimes separating into 1--4 nutlets. Genera In Family: 4 genera, +- 450 species; worldwide distribution, especially in tropics and subtropics. Note: Included in Boraginaceae in TJM2 and some other treatments (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV 2016 Bot Linn Soc 181:1--20) but treated as separate family by Boraginales Working Group (Luebert et al. 2016). eFlora Treatment Author: Michael G. Simpson
Common Name: HELIOTROPE Habit: Annual, perennial herb [shrub], glabrous to bristly or strigose. Stem: prostrate to erect, branched. Leaf: generally cauline, petioled to sessile, generally entire. Inflorescence: flower 1 in axils or many in terminal coiled spike-like cymes. Flower: corolla rotate to bell-shaped, white to purple; stamens attached on upper tube, included, anthers +- sessile; style 0 or not lobed, stigma 1, linear to disk-like. Fruit: nutlets 2 or 4, erect, generally ovoid to spheric, smooth, roughened, or hairy, scar generally lateral. Etymology: (Greek: sun turning, from some species flowering at summer solstice) eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald B. Kelley & Dieter H. Wilken Unabridged Reference: Ewan 1942 Bull So Calif Acad Sci 41: 51--57
Heliotropium curassavicum L. var. oculatum (A. Heller) I.M. Johnst. ex Tidestr.
NATIVE Habit: Perennial herb, fleshy, occasionally from rhizome-like root. Stem: prostrate to +- ascending, 1--6 dm, glabrous. Leaf: 1--6 cm, generally oblanceolate, short-petioled to subsessile, acute to obtuse, glabrous. Inflorescence: spike-like cymes 2--4. Flower: calyx lobes oblong to narrow-ovate, glabrous; corolla 3--5 mm, 3--5(7) mm diam, salverform to bell-shaped, white, throat generally blue-purple, upper tube +- yellow. Fruit: nutlets 4, smooth. Chromosomes: 2n=26, 28. Ecology: Moist to dry, saline to alkaline soils, generally near water; Elevation: < 2250 m. Bioregional Distribution: CA (exc KR, NCoRH, c SNH); Distribution Outside California: southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, to western Texas, northern Mexico. Flowering Time: Feb--Oct Synonyms: Heliotropium oculatum A. Heller; Heliotropium spathulatum subsp. oculatum (A. Heller) Ewan Unabridged Note: Part of worldwide, highly polymorphic sp. complex with many ecological and/or geographical variants. Jepson eFlora Author: Ronald B. Kelley & Dieter H. Wilken Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Heliotropium convolvulaceum var. californicum Next taxon: Heliotropium europaeum
Botanical illustration including Heliotropium curassavicum var. oculatum
Citation for this treatment: Ronald B. Kelley & Dieter H. Wilken 2012, Heliotropium curassavicum var. oculatum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=59914, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).