BORAGE FAMILY 



BORAGINACEAE 



WESTERN FALSE GROMWELL 



Onosmodium occidcntale Mackenzie 



This western species is found on prairies and rocky or gravelly 

 banks from Illinois to North Dakota and Manitoba, south to 

 Texas and New Mexico. It is a perennial herb 1-3 feet high and 



covered with fine 

 grayish hairs. 



The blooming sea- 

 son is May to July. 

 The calyx is deeply 

 parted into ; narrow 

 segments. The whit- 

 ish corolla is tubular, 

 5-lobed at the top and 

 covered outside with 

 gray hairs. The 5 sta- 

 mens have very short 

 filaments and are at- 

 tached to the tube of 

 the corolla near the 

 throat. The ovary is 

 4-parted and the style is long and slender. Sometimes all 4 parts 

 of the ovary develop into nutlets but more often only i or 2 

 do so. The nutlets are smooth, dull white, about one-fifth of an 

 inch long and somewhat pointed at the tip. 



The Shaggy False Gromwell, Onosmodium hispidissimut?! Mac- 

 kenzie, is also found in Illinois, probably more widely distributed 

 than 0. occidentale. It is usually found in dry fields or thickets or 

 on rocky banks. It is quite similar to the western species but is 

 covered with coarser, more bristly hairs. The nutlets are distinctly 

 constricted just above the base and are not much pointed at the 

 end. Usually they have a brownish tinge. 



The Soft-hairy False Gromwell, Onosjnodium molle Michx., and 

 the Virginia False Gromwell, Onosmodium virginianum (L.) A. DC, 

 have been reported as occurring in southern Illinois but they are very 

 rare. The first is clothed with copious fine soft gray hairs but the 

 latter has harsh and rigid appressed short bristles. The leaves of 0. 

 molle are sessile, one-half to 1 inches long and ovate-lanceolate; 

 those of O. virginianum are 1-3 inches long, oblong, oval or oblong- 

 lanceolate, obtuse and sessile or the lower are oblanceolate, acutish 

 and narrowed into petioles. The Virginia species occurs in thickets 

 and on hillsides and the soft-hairy plant on prairies, but both bloom 

 from May to July. 



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