HELIOTROPIUM DOLOSUM

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

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

Dolosum (Gr) Deceitful.

Stems:-

1) Up to 40 cm, erect or ascending.

a) petioles with dense, greyish or yellowish, patent, hairs c. 1 mm.

Leaves:-

1) Up to 5·5 x 2·8 cm, ovate to elliptical, cuneate, to rounded at the base, rounded

to almost sharp at the apex, lanuginose.

Flowers:-

1) Scented.

2) Sepals, 0·8-1·1 mm wide, lanceolate, usually lanuginose that are close to the

stem, curving upwards around, the developing fruit, though often spreading later.

3) Corolla, 3-5 mm.

b) anthers, 1·1-1·5 mm.

c) stigma, conical, hairy.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlet, glabrous, smooth.

Key features:-

1) Fruit, glabrous.

2) Sepals, lanceolate.

3) Anthers, 1-1·5 mm.

4) Stigma, usually densely hairy.

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Habitat:- Mainly in coastal habitats, but also in harvested fields, dry open shrubby

vegetation and waste ground some distance inland, up to 500(-800) m.

Distribution:- Rather rare and scattered outside the Aegean area. - C & E

Mediterranean region and SW Asia, eastwards to Afghanistan. Limited distribution

on Crete scattered around the coastal areas.

Flowering time:- End of May to Sept.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis