3. Heliotropium curassavicum L. var. curassavicum. . Seaside heliotrope, cola 



DE Mico. Fig. 650. 



Perennial, usually with a deep rhizome; stems prostrate or laxly decumbent, 

 rubbery, to 4 dm. long and 5 mm. thick, ascendingly branched; leaves oblanceolate, 

 often narrowly so, thick and juicy, strongly compressed, to 4 cm. long and 8 mm. 

 wide, the apex obtuse or rounded; inflorescence terminal or extra-axillary and lateral 

 along the leafy stems, single or paired or rarely ternate, densely flowered, entirely 

 bractless, scorpioid cymes, in fruit elongating, becoming as much as 1 dm. long and 

 the rachis usually more or less broadened and flattened; calyx sessile or nearly so, 

 lobed almost to the base, the lobes lanceolate or oblong, equal or nearly so, fleshy, 

 at anthesis 1-1.4 mm. long, moderately accrescent in fruit; corolla white, small, 

 1.2-3.5 mm. long, entirely glabrous, the lobes rounded, the tube shortly surpassed 

 by the calyx lobes; fruit 4-lobed, 2-2.5 mm. high, 2-3 mm. thick, obscurely com- 

 pressed laterally, embraced by the somewhat accrescent calyx lobes, smooth and 

 glabrous; mericarps bearing a thick layer of firm vesicular exocarp which appar- 

 ently functions as a float-organ in water dissemination. 



In sandy soil along beaches, about ponds, saline flats and similar areas through- 

 out Tex., Okla., N.M. and Ariz, most of the year; from Fla., n. to Del., w. to Okla., 

 Tex., N.M. and Ariz., s. in the W.I., Mex. and C.A. to Surinam and Col. and 

 thence s. along the Pac. Coast of S.A. to Chile and Arg.; introd. in s. Eur. 



Var. oculatum (Heller) I.M. Johnst. Corolla limb 3-5 mm. in diameter; fruit 

 1.5-2 mm. wide. H. oculatum Heller. Rather widespread in w. half of Ariz., 

 throughout year; also Ut. to Baja Calif. 



Var. obovatum DC. The corolla limb of var. obovatum is 5-10 mm. wide, at 

 most only purplish-tinged at the throat, and the fruit is 2.5 mm. wide. The oblan- 

 ceolate to spatulate leaves are also to 2 cm. wide H. spathulatum Rydb. Rare, 

 Dallam and Bailey cos. in the Tex. Plains Country in old buffalo wallows (playa 

 lakes) and N.M., June-July; w. U.S. 



4. Heliotropium Greggii Torr. 



Plant from a deep rhizome, strigose, pale-green; stems usually numerous, 

 prostrate or loosely decumbent, ascendingly branched, leafy, to 15 cm. long; leaves 

 numerous, thickish, lanceolate to linear, sessile or with petioles to 3 mm. long, 

 midrib prominent but veins absent, the margin revolute; inflorescence at first glo- 

 merate and then elongating into a loose racemose cyme to 5 cm. long, commonly 

 5- to 10-flowered; calyx lobes about equal, 2-3 mm. long, lanceolate; corolla white 

 with a yellow throat, fragrant, the limb 7-12 mm. broad, shallowly lobed with 5 

 broad rounded principal lobes and (alternating with these) 5 smaller somewhat 

 triangular incurved lobes, the throat with hairy inflexed plaits, the tube inside bear- 

 ing an inconspicuous nectariferous ring about 0.5 mm. above the base; fruit very 

 hairy, about 3 mm. thick and 1.5 mm. high. 



Usually forming colonies in places where water collects temporarily, frequent 

 along roadside shoulders and ditches, in sand, gravel or on clay flats, lacking in 

 volcanic areas, frequent and widely distributed in Trans-Pecos Tex. and also e. in 

 Loving, Ward, Crane and Upton cos., with outlying stations in Knox and Medina 

 COS., and s.e. N.M. (Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy and Otero cos.), Apr.-Sept.; N.M., 

 Tex., Coah., Chih., Dgo. and Zac. 



5. Heliotropium procumbens Mill. Fig. 651. 



Plant erect to loosely decumbent, 1-5 dm. tall, moderately to abundantly strigose 

 or appressed hispid-villose, pale-green or somewhat cinereous or even canescent; 

 stems one to several, when single usually loosely and ascendingly branched above 

 the base; leaves numerous, with petioles to 1 cm. long, narrowly oblanceolate to 



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