BORAGE FAMILY BORAGINACEAE 
INDIAN HELIOTROPE 
Heliotropium indicum L. 
The Indian Heliotrope is an annual which was introduced 
into America from India and is now widely distributed in waste 
places in warm regions as far north as North Carolina, Kentucky, 
Illinois and Missouri. 
The hairy stem is 1-3 
feet high and more or 
less branched. The lower 
leaves are alternate but 
the upper sometimes ap- 
pear to be opposite as 
shown. 
The curved 1-sided 
spike becomes 3-6 inches 
long and produces flow- 
ers continuously from 
May to November. One 
may frequently find ripe 
fruits at the base of the 
spike, flowers along the 
middle and buds at 
the tip. The 5 green 
calyx lobes are lanceolate and considerably shorter than the 
corolla tube. The corolla has a blue cylindrical tube and a spread- 
ing limb that is slightly 5-lobed. Within the tube and attached 
to its sides are § stamens with very short filaments. Unlike most 
members of the Borage family, the ovary is not lobed and the 
style is very short and falls off before the fruit is mature. The 
fruit becomes deeply 2-lobed as it matures and each lobe final- 
ly splits into 2 single-seeded nutlets which are ribbed on the 
back. 
The old sweet rocket sheds its fine perfumes, 
With golden stars the coreopsis flames, 
And here are scores of sweet old-fashioned blooms, 
Dear for the very fragrance of their names— 
Poppies and gilly flowers and four-o’clocks, 
Cowslips and candytuft and heliotrope and hollyhocks, 
The Old-fashioned Garden—JOHN RussELL HAYES 
260 
