Heliotropium ciliatum Kaplan

Leaves

Family:	Boraginaceae
Full name:	Heliotropium ciliatum Kaplan
Location:	Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB)
ID status:	Fairly certain
Afrikaans common name(s):	Kalahari hamelstertjie
English common name(s):	Kalahari string of stars
Synonym(s):	Heliotropium ciliatum Kaplan var. lanceolatum Heliotropium gibbosum Friedr.-Holzh. Heliotropium pustulatum Kaplan Heliotropium tuberculosum (Cham.) Gürke - (1893), non (Boiss.) Boiss (1875) Tournefortia tuberculosa Cham.
Status:	Native
Description:	Erect perennial herb, up to 80 cm, branching from a rhizomatous base. Leaves lanceolate to ovate, 2-5 cm long with hard short appressed hairs above and on the veins below, somewhat asymmetric and often decurrent onto the petiole; petiole up to 2 cm long. Flowers in curled elongating inflorescences, eventually up to 19 cm long, white with triangular-acuminate lobes. Fruits saddle-shaped at the apex, tuberculate-crested, c. 4 x 5 x 4 mm, hairless. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Erect rhizomatous perennial herb up to 80 cm high. Stem usually branched from the base, somewhat swollen below the branches insertions, angular as for the branches with short appressed hairs. Leaves usually sparse; petiole 2–20(25) mm long, with hair-covering like the branches; lamina 20–50 x 5–20 mm, lanceolate or ovate, with hard short appressed hairs above and on the nerves below, covered with the swollen bases of minute hairs below, rarely roughish on both surfaces, acute to obtuse and sometimes mucronate at apex, acute to obtuse, decurrent on the petiole and often asymmetrical at base, margins usually repand and undulate. Cymes lax, up to 19 cm long when completely expanded, usually 2, rarely single, terminal; common peduncle 1–4 cm long. Flowers sessile or subsessile. Calyx minute, callose-strigose or subglabrous outside, subglabrous or glabrous inside; lobes 0.5–1.0(2.0) mm long, ovate to ovate-triangular, acute, callose-ciliate mainly at the base, thick. Corolla hypocrateriform, white, sparsely strigose outside on the upper part, otherwise glabrous outside and inside; tube 3.5–5.0 mm long, slightly widened in the upper half; limb 3–5(6) mm in diam.; lobes 1.2–2.2(2.5) mm long, triangular-acuminate, usually with undulate and crenate margins, bent inwards in bud, spreading. Stamens inserted about the middle of the corolla tube; anthers 1.2–1.5 mm long, narrowly oblong, emarginate at apex, obtuse to subcordate at base, subsessile. Ovary glabrous. Style 1.0–1.5(2.0) mm long, filiform, glabrous; stigmatic ring not very well marked; sterile appendix 1.0–1.4 mm long, narrowly conical, deeply 2-lobed, hirtellous. Fruits c. 4 x 5 x 4 mm, saddle-shaped at apex, tuberculate-crested, glabrous; nutlets connate in pairs, each pair 2-horned, 2-seeded, with the inner surface flat. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) Perennial herb, much branched from a woody base, 0.2-0.8 m high. Stems erect. Leaves petiolate; blade ovate to elliptic, 10-30 x 2-10 mm, slightly decurrent, base cuneate, apex acute, margin undulate, shallowly toothed, lower leaf blade with bulbous-based setae, upper part of seta short and stout; petioles 3-12 mm long. Flowers: in helicoid cymes, ebracteate; upper part of style head cylindrical; calyx pubescent, persistent, deeply lobed, much shorter than corolla, lobes triangular; corolla white, throat orange, tube cylindrical, ± 3.5 mm long, appressed pubescent in upper part, lobes acuminate, ± 1.5 mm long; Oct.-May. Fruit 2 nutlets, rugose, tuberculate-crested, saddle-shaped at apex, connate in pairs.
Link(s)	African Plant Database JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia
Photographer:	AA Dreyer
Date of photograph:	18 Mar 2007
Camera make:	Canon
Camera model:	PowerShot A700
Lens aperture:	f/4.0
Shutter speed:	1/100 s
ISO speed:	-
Content last updated:	18 Apr 2024