Hackelia deflexa (Wahlenb.) Opiz

  • Authority

    Gentry, Johnnie L. & Carr, Robert L. 1976. A revision of the genus Hackelia (Boraginaceae) in North America north of Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 26: 121-227.

  • Family

    Boraginaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Hackelia deflexa (Wahlenb.) Opiz

  • Description

    Species Description - Slender annual, often biennial, (2-)4-9 dm tall; stems few, more often solitary, erect, strigose above the middle, the hairs becoming coarser and spreading below. Leaves strigose to hirsutulous overall, radical leaves generally absent, lowermost cauline leaves 6-18 cm long, 15-43 mm wide, broadly oblanceolate, petiolate, those at midstem 2-10 cm long, 5-30 mm wide, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic-ovate, mostly acuminate, becoming reduced to bracts in the inflorescence. Pedicel 4-10 mm long in fruit. Calyx lobes 1.5-2.5 mm long, lanceolate. Corolla limb blue or varying to white, 1.5-3 mm wide. Fornices with appendages papillate-puberulent. Anthers 1.9-3.2 mm long. Nutlets narrowly ovate; dorsal surface verrucose-hispidulous, the intramarginal prickles absent or occasionally with 2 to 12 distinct prickles; marginal prickles distinct to their bases or very nearly so, as much as 1.8 mm long. Chromosome number, unknown.

  • Discussion

    Echinospermum deflexion var americanum Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 17: 224. 1882. Lappula deflexa var americana (Gray) Greene, Pittonia 2: 183. 1891. Lappula americana (Gray) Rydb., Bull. Torrey Club 24: 294. 1897. Hackelia americana (Gray) Fernald, Rhodora 40: 341. 1938. Lappula deflexa ssp. americana (Gray) Cochrane, Michigan Bot. 14: 117. 1975. Type. CANADA. Saskatchewan, 1857-58, E. Bourgeau s.n. (GH!). Lectotype was selected by Fernald (1938). Without having had a chance to study this plant in the field and with, at best, a poor understanding of the Eurasian material, we choose to follow a rather conservative treatment of this taxon. We feel, as earlier workers have suggested, that the taxon is distinct from the Eurasian Hackelia deflexa but until more information is available we do not feel that it is worthy of specific rank. This plant is probably most closely allied to Hackelia virginiana. The two approach each other morphologically but H. virginiana generally has larger foliage, and has the dorsal surface of the nutlet covered with rather long glochidia. The two taxa are sympatric throughout much of the Northcentral and Northeastern parts of the United States. These two taxa may have some affinities with the Southeast Asian Hackelia species. Hackelia deflexa var americana exhibits much more phenotypic plasticity in stature than the other Hackelia taxa we have seen. One can find flowering plants ranging in size from 5-6 cm to well over 1 m in height.

  • Distribution

    Habitat and distribution (Fig. 13.). In shrubby or open wooded slopes, roadside ditches and banks, or steep bluffs, often in calcareous soils, at elevations of ca. 300 to 5,000 feet, in Canada in the Northwest Territories from about the Great Slave Lake south through British Columbia and Alberta and east to Quebec and New Brunswick, in the United States in Washington, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado east to New England. Flowers from May to early August.

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