Plants → Boraginaceae → Heliotropium
Heliotropium indicum L.
Sp.Pl. 130 (1753)
Conservation Status:
Alien
Name Status:
Current
Brief Description
Amanda Spooner,
Saturday 11 June 2005
Erect annual, herb, to 0.5 m high. Fl. blue, purple, Jul/Oct. Grey clay, black peaty clay. Wetlands, intertidal flats, peaty soaks, lake fringes, river banks. Distribution: N: CK, OVP, VB.
Scientific Description
Amanda Spooner, James Carpenter, Gillian Smith and Kim Spence,
Thursday 21 August 2008
Habit. Annual, broad-leaved, erect, strongly rooted herbs, up to to 0.5 m high.
Leaves. Alternate, spiral, simple, petiolate, petiole 16–97 mm long. Leaf blade 74–140(–230) mm long, 36–80 mm wide, undissected, elliptic or ovate or triangular, base tapering (narrowly attenuate) or oblique, margins entire (sinuate) or crenate, apex acuminate or acute or obtuse. Blade with indumentum; indumentum hairy (on upper and lower surfaces), hairs simple.
Flowers. Arranged in inflorescences, in spikes or in cymes (coiled, one-sided, spike-like, simple to 2-branched); predominantly purple or blue, regular, pedicellate or subsessile or sessile, pedicel to 1 mm long, perianth 2 -whorled. Calyx 1.5–3 mm long, 5 sepals, all sepals joined. Corolla 4–7 mm long, 5 petals, all petals joined. Stamens 5, adnate to the perianth (inserted midway down corolla tube), all alternating with the corolla parts. Anthers versatile, dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Ovary syncarpous, superior, 4 -celled. Ovules 1 per cell. Styles 1, simple.
Fruit. Schizocarpic, of mericarps, non-fleshy, 3–7 mm long, 2.5–7 mm wide.
Distribution. Australian: Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland. Alien to Australia, alien to Western Australia, naturalised. Native: Thought to originate in South America but is a significant weed in south-east Asia and is also a crop weed in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
Habitat. Amongst medium trees (Melaleuca forest over monsoon thickets), grassland; in clay (black, peaty), wet soil; occupying river banks, intertidal flats, lake edges, wetlands; growing in disturbed natural vegetation.
Flowering period. May, July, October.
Descriptions are sourced from the Weed Information Network project, Western Australian Herbarium.
Descriptions were generated using DELTA data format and DELTA software: Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1995 onwards, 1998).
