Heliotrope

Heliotropium curassavicum

This photo was taken in Phoenix, Arizona, June 2007. A copy is also hosted at Wikimedia.

PERENNIAL: Warm season herbaceous perennial often growing nearly prostrate on soil.

LEAVES: Rounded, elliptic leaves are succulent with a blue-gray cast.

RANGE: Common on alkaline or saline soil that is occasionally moist such along river flood plains. Sometimes a weed in urban and agricultural settings in the Sonoran Desert. Beyond the Sonoran Desert it is found on similar soils across much of North America.

FLOWERS: White, five-pointed flowers borne in several distinctly scorpioid (coiled) spikes.

FRUIT: Small capsules breaking into four nutlets.

UNARMED:

Boraginaceae -- Borage Family

More Information:

• Southwest Environmental Information Network
• Encyclopedia of Life
• USDA Plant Profile
• Google Images
• Google Scholar Literature Search