img

Heliotropium curassavicum

L. (1753)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Boraginales Family: Heliotropiaceae Genus: Heliotropium

kīpūkai [kipukai], lau po‘opo‘ohina [lau poopoohina] (Ni‘ihau), nena, po‘opo‘ohina (Ni‘ihau via St. John), seaside heliotrope

img

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Glabrous and usually glaucous perennial herbs.

Stems: Stems prostrate or decumbent, succulent, 1–4.5 dm long.

Roots: Deep rhizomes.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Usually alternate. Blades oblanceolate, 2–4(–5) cm long, 0.3–0.6(–0.9) cm wide. Apex obtuse. Base attenuate. Blades thick and juicy. Margins usually entire. Petiolate or sessile. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in terminal and lateral, single or paired, bractless, scorpioid cymes 2–5(–10) cm long. Peduncles 0.5–2(–5) cm long. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic or occasionally slightly irregular. Calyx divided almost to base, the lobes subequal, fleshy, lanceolate or oblong, 1–2 mm long; sepals distinct or connate at base, sometimes to above the middle. Corolla white with a greenish or yellowish center, funnelform, 1.2–4 mm long; (4)5(6)-lobed, the tube often with scales at the summit opposite the lobes, formed by invagination of the corolla tube, the lobes imbricate or convolute, rarely valvate. Stamens (4)5(6), inserted on the corolla tube, not exserted. Ovary superior, 4-celled, entire, rounded, or 2–4-lobed; ovules usually 4, 2 per carpel, eventually 1 per cell, sometimes fewer by abortion, anatropous, erect, ascending, or nearly horizontal, rarely pendulous; style simple, terminal, seated in the pericarp; stigma with a fertile discoid base and a sterile, apical, often forked appendage.

Fruit: Fruit dry; lobed or unlobed; breaking up into nutlets; nutlets 4; 1–seeded; ovoid; 1.5–2 mm long; smooth or faintly rugulose on the back; covered with a thick exocarp that functions as a float organ for water dispersal. Seeds 1–4; endosperm absent or; if present; fleshy and scanty.

Ploidy: 2n = 24; 26; 28; 52

Habitat: Occurring in wet or dry sites in coastal areas.

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Images

img
img

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Statewide Status

Indigenous

Island Status

Ka'ula Indigenous
Ni'ihau(Incl. Lehua) Indigenous
Kaua'i Indigenous
O'ahu Indigenous
Molokai Indigenous
Kamole(Laysan Island) Indigenous
Lana'i Indigenous
Kaho'olawe Indigenous
Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) Indigenous
Maui Indigenous
Hawai'i Indigenous
Nihoa Indigenous

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Sp. Pl.: 130 (1753)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:395 (La, FF, N, Ni, K, O, Mo, L, M, Ka, H); Wood & LeGrande 2006:21 (Le); Note: Kl added, based on BISH spms. (E.L. Caum 7, R. Daehler 8, R. Daehler 19)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
Back to Top