HELIOTROPIUM EUROPAEUM

Family:- BORAGINACEAE/H. EUROPAEUM Group

Common Names:- Heliotrope

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Heliotropium (Gr) Turn-with-the-sun.

Europaeum (L) European, from Europe.

General description:- Variable, low to short, erect or spreading, hairy annual,

generally branched

Stem:-

a) 10-50 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:

a) up to 5·5(-6·5) x 2·8(-3·5) cm.

b) ovate to elliptical, wedge-shaped (cuneate) to almost rounded at the base,

rounded to subacute at the apex.

c) with flat-lying soft hairs (appressed-pubescent).

d) stalk (petiole) up to 3·5 cm.

Flowers:-

a) 2-4.5 mm.

b) borne in one-sided, forked, spiralled spikes.

c) white with a yellow 'eye'.

d) unscented.

1) Sepals:

a) 0·4-0·8 mm wide.

b) linear-oblong or narrowly triangular.

c) irregularly spreading fine hairs (patent-pubescent), usually patent soon after

full-flowering (anthesis).

2) Corolla:

a) 2-4·2 mm.

b) anthers 0·7-1 mm.

c) stigma narrow and parallel-sided (linear) -awl-shaped (subulate), usually

hairless (glabrous).

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) splitting into 4, occasionally only 2.

b) hairless or slightly so (glabrous or pubescent).

c) usually wrinkled (rugose).

Key features:-

1) Stigma linear-awl-shaped (subulate), usually glabrous.

Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste ground, roadsides. 0-700 m.

Distribution:- Mediterranean region S Europe and SW Asia, introduced as a weed

elsewhere. Limited distribution on Crete, but probably under recorded.

Flowering time:- End of May to early Nov.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton