Common Name: UNICORN-PLANT FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, glandular-hairy, generally strongly scented. Leaf: simple, opposite or alternate; stipules 0; petiole long. Inflorescence: raceme, terminal, bracted; bractlets 2, just below flower. Flower: bisexual; sepals 5, +- unequal; corolla 2-lipped, generally 5-lobed; stamens epipetalous, generally 2 long, 2 short, 1 vestigial; ovary superior, 1-chambered, placentas 2, parietal, 2-lobed, style > ovary, curved, stigma 2-lobed, flat, generally closing when touched. Fruit: capsule, drupe-like; outer layer fleshy, deciduous; inner layer ultimately exposed, woody, tip incurved, splitting to form 2 claws.
Genera In Family: 4 genera, 16 species: generally +- tropical America; some cultivated. Note: No evidence that insects stuck to glands are digested.
eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax & Lawrence R. Heckard
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: UNICORN-PLANT
Habit: Taproot branched or tuberous. Stem: prostrate to spreading, generally < 1 m. Leaf: blade broadly ovate to round or triangular, palmately veined (generally palmately lobed), base cordate. Inflorescence: bractlets < calyx. Flower: calyx 1--2 cm, generally 5-lobed, split to base on lower side, or sepals free; corolla 2--5 cm, bell- to funnel-shaped, showy, tube cylindric, generally < 1 cm, bent downward, throat 10--30 mm, limb with 5 flared lobes, throat and lower limb with colored lines (nectar guides). Fruit: body 5--10 cm, fusiform, smooth, rough, or spiny, crested with branched projections generally only along upper suture; claws 1.5--3 × body. Seed: 8--13 mm, angled, generally black, corky.
Species In Genus: 8 species: America. Etymology: (Greek: elephant's trunk) Note: Fruit dispersed by attachment of claw to animals. Proboscidea parviflora subsp. parviflora not in California according to some reports, naturalized in California according to others.
Unabridged Note: All California material previously identified as Proboscidea parviflora subsp. parviflora belongs instead to Proboscidea parviflora var. hohokamiana Bretting, according to some but not all reports; in California only in cultivation according to some reports, naturalized in California according to others; in Arizona cultivated by Native Americans for fibers from fruit.
Reference: Bretting 1982 Amer J Bot 69:1531--1537