Heliotropium amplexicaule
Vahl Blue HeliotropePerennial, prostrate or ascending, to c. 15 cm high; indumentum of mixed simple and glandular hairs. Leaves oblanceolate to lanceolate, 2–8 cm long, 4–15 mm wide, apex acute or obtuse, base cuneate, margins slightly undulate, both surfaces finely hairy with a mixture of long simple hairs and shorter glandular hairs; petiole short, indistinct. Inflorescences usually branched several times. Sepals narrow-ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm long, acute, hairy, shortly connate, not elongating; corolla 6–7 mm long, throat densely bearded, purple or lilac with a yellow throat, tube c. as long as lobes; anthers acuminate, apices free; style obscure, stigma c. 0.4 mm long, pubescent. Mericarps 2, succulent at first, dry and falling at maturity, glabrous, rugose, brown. Flowers Nov.–Mar.
VVP, NIS, EGU, HNF. Also naturalised SA, Qld, NSW. Native to South America. Known in Victoria from a 1973 collection from a farm paddock in the north-east near Yackandandah, and recent collections from the upper Snowy River in the far east, and near the You Yangs.
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Boraginaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 387–411. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
