Hackelia
Perennial (in Victoria), or rarely annual herbs; stems erect or decumbent with retrorse hairs, with prominent thorn-like backward pointing statolith hairs in H. latifolia. Leaves basal and cauline, alternate, petiolate. Inflorescence with or without leaf-like bracts; flowers short or long-pedicellate, pedicel elongating and reflexed in fruit. Sepals 5, fused at base. Corolla actinomorphic, narrowly funnel-shaped with 5 saccate faucal scales in the throat opposite the lobes. Stamens included; anthers ± sessile, appendages short and acute. Ovary 4-lobed; style very short; stigma capitate. Fruit of 4 spiny mericarps splitting from a low, convex gynobase; spines closely packed and evenly distributed over the convex outer mericarp face, marginal spines free or nearly free, not fused at base forming a marginal wing; abscission scar on gynobase on an indistinct subapical 'beak'.
A genus of ca. 45 species, mostly in western North America, but also South America, Asia, and Europe; 2 species in Australia (both endemic).
SpinningSynonyms
Weigend M., Selvi, F., Thomas, D.C.; Hilger, H.H. (2016). Boraginaceae. In: Kubitzki, K., The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Volume 14. Flowering Plants. Eudicots., pp. 41–102. Springer.
Wilson, P.G.; Renner, M.A.M. (2020). Hackelia. In: PlantNET, New South Wales Flora online, pp. –.
