Common name: Blue Heliotrope
Heliotropium amplexicaule Vahl APNI* Synonyms: Heliotropium anchusifolium Poir. APNI*
Description: Perennial herb, prostrate to ascending, up to 15 cm high, finely hairy with simple and glandular hairs.
Leaves oblanceolate to lanceolate, 2–8 cm long, 5–15 mm wide, obtuse to acute, margins undulate, lamina finely hairy with short glandular hairs and longer simple hairs; subsessile.
Flowers in long branched scorpioid cymes; bracts absent. Sepals to 3.5 mm long, acute. Corolla 3–3.5 mm long, purple or lilac with a yellow throat; lobes about as long as the tube. Anthers acuminate, tips free. Style very short; stigma broad, pubescent. Mericarps 2, glabrous, succulent at first, becoming wrinkled at maturity.
Flowering: spring–autumn.
Distribution and occurrence: widespread weed, commonly found on roadsides. Native of S America.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NT, *CT, *NWS, *CWS, *SWS, *NWP, *NFWP
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *S.A.
A decared noxious weed in certain shires of N.S.W.
Text by Peter G. Wilson
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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