Descriptive Flora 



177 



HEL10 TROPIA CEAE. Heliotrope Family. In Small's Flora. 

 Heliotropium curassavicum L. Fleshy-leaved Heliotrope. 



Moisture-loving plants 6 to 12 inches high, with fleshy leaves 

 and usually pairs of coiled clusters of small, white, 5-lobed 

 flowers. Leaves simple, alternate. Blades fleshy, linear or 

 Avedge-shaped. Flowers in one sided spikes, y 2 to 3 inches long 

 and coiled at the tips. Corolla very small, 5-lobed, about 1/12" 

 across. Fruit small, round, 4-lobed. April to late summer. 

 Usually in alkali soil. The genus name has its origin in the Gr. 

 lielios, sun, tropos, to turn. 



Heliotropium tenellum (Nutt.) Torr. White Heliotrope. 



Slender-stemmed, branched plants, 4 to 12 inches high, 

 covered Avith appressed hairs, with linear leaves and small, white, 

 5-lobed flowers singly terminating short pedicels that branch out 

 of the stems (never in a leaf axil). Leaves simple, alternate. 

 Blades linear or narrowly linear-lanceolate, y 2 to 2 inches long, 

 sessile or very short-petioled, the margin entire and more or less 

 rolled back. Calyx of 5, small, distinctly unequal, leafy sepals. 

 Corolla tube slightly surpassing the calyx. Corolla 14" across, 

 the lobes rounded at their tips. Fruit very small, 4-lobed, 

 broader than high, almost hidden in the calyx. In rocky dry 

 creek beds and banks of streams. June to fall. 



VERBENACEAE. Vervain Family. 



Verbena bipinnatifida Nutt. Common Verbena. 



An attractive plant, much like our garden Verbena, with 

 hairy, square-stemmed, spreading or ascending branches, each 

 tipped by a flat-topped cluster of small, deep lavender to pinkish- 

 violet flowers each about %" across. Leaves simple, opposite. 

 Blades deeply once or twice divided into long narrow lobes. 

 Corolla 5-lobed, about %" across, the lobes notched and united 

 at base into a narrow tube. Calyx lobes 5, narrow, pointed, 

 about half as long as the corolla tube. Seeds 4, small. Wide- 



