Heliotropium angiospermum Murray
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Boraginaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Erect herb, to 1 m tall, many-branched from a woody base; branches cylindrical; young parts sericeous. Leaves alternate; blades 2-5 x 1.2-2 cm, lanceolate, ovate, or elliptic, sparsely covered with white, appressed hairs, chartaceous, often rugose, the apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate, mucronate, the base obtuse or attenuate, usually unequal, the margins crenate and ciliate; petioles 1-1.5 cm long, pubescent. Flowers in axillary or terminal, scorpioid spikes (sometimes branched), 2-14 cm long. Sepals awlshaped, 1-1.5 mm long; corolla white, funnel-shaped, the tube 1.5-2 mm long, pubescent within, the lobes 0.5-1 mm long; anthers and stigma sessile. Fruit conical, slightly compressed ca. 3 mm diam. at base, splitting into 4 nuts.
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Discussion
Common name: eyebright.
Note: A specimen of this species was erroneously reported as Heliotropium procumbens Mill, by Woodbury and Weaver (1987).
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Distribution
A common weed along roadsides and in disturbed areas. East End (A665), along trail to Fortsberg (A4095), Maria Bluff (A2336). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; southeastern United States to South America, including the West Indies.
West Indies| Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| South America| Virgin Gorda Virgin Islands South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|