Heliotropium europaeum

Last updated

Heliotropium europaeum
Heliotropium europaeum3.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Boraginales
Family: Boraginaceae
Genus: Heliotropium
Species:
H. europaeum
Binomial name
Heliotropium europaeum
L.

Heliotropium europaeum is a species of heliotrope known by the common names European heliotrope [1] and European turn-sole. [2] It is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, but it is widely naturalized elsewhere, such as in Australia and North America. It grows as a roadside weed in some places. This is an annual herb growing from a taproot and reaching maximum heights near 40 centimeters. The stem and oval-shaped leaves are covered in soft hairs. The inflorescences are coiled spikes of white flowers with fuzzy or bristly sepals. Each flower is just a few millimeters wide. The fruit is a bumpy nutlet.

Contents

Toxicity

Heliotropium europaeum contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is poisonous. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clytie (Oceanid)</span> Nymph in Greek mythology

Clytie, or Clytia is a water nymph, daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys in Greek mythology. She is thus one of the 3,000 Oceanid nymphs, and sister to the 3,000 Potamoi.

<i>Heliotropium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium is a genus of flowering plants in the heliotrope family, Heliotropiaceae. There are around 325 species in this almost cosmopolitan genus, which are commonly known as heliotropes. They are highly toxic to dogs and cats.

<i>Heliotropium arborescens</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium arborescens, the garden heliotrope or just heliotrope, is a species of flowering plant in the borage family Boraginaceae, native to Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. Growing to 1.2 m (3.9 ft) tall and broad, it is a bushy, evergreen, short-lived shrub with dense clusters of bright purple flowers, notable for their intense, rather vanilla-like fragrance. Common names also include cherry pie and common heliotrope. Note that the common name "garden heliotrope" may also refer to valerian, which is not closely related.

<i>Trifolium campestre</i> Species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae

Trifolium campestre, commonly known as hop trefoil, field clover and low hop clover, is a species of flowering plant native to Europe and western Asia, growing in dry, sandy grassland habitats, fields, woodland margins, roadsides, wastelands and cultivated land. The species name campestre means "of the fields".

<i>Comarum palustre</i> Species of flowering plant

Comarum palustre, known by the common names purple marshlocks, swamp cinquefoil and marsh cinquefoil, is a common waterside shrub. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, particularly the northern regions. It is most commonly found on lake shores, marshy riversides and stream margins, often partly submerged with foliage floating. It is a parent of some FragariaComarum hybrids, ornamental plants produced by crossing with strawberries.

<i>Heliotropium arboreum</i> Species of plant

Heliotropium arboreum is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It is native to tropical Asia including southern China, Madagascar, northern Australia, and most of the atolls and high islands of Micronesia and Polynesia. Common names include velvetleaf soldierbush, tree heliotrope, veloutier, and octopus bush. It is a shrub or small tree typical of littoral zones reaching a height of 3.6 m (12 ft), with a spread of about 5 m (16 ft).

<i>Heliotropium amplexicaule</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium amplexicaule is a species of heliotrope known by several common names, including clasping heliotrope, blue heliotrope, and summer heliotrope. It is native to South America, especially Argentina, but it is known on several other continents where it is an introduced species, and in some areas such as eastern Australia, a noxious weed.

<i>Heliotropium curassavicum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium curassavicum, commonly called salt heliotrope, a species of flowering plant in the borage family (Boraginaceae). It is native to much of the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, including the West Indies and Hawaii. It can be found as an introduced, and sometimes invasive, species in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe. It thrives in salty soils, such as beach sand, alkali flats, and salt marshes. It is often found in disturbed coastal sites.

<i>Juncus capitatus</i> Species of grass

Juncus capitatus is a species of rush known by the common names dwarf rush and leafybract dwarf rush. It is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa. It is also an introduced species in parts of North America such as California and the Gulf Coast. It grows in moist areas, such as wet sand, vernal pools, and ditches.

<i>Heliotropium indicum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium indicum, commonly known as Indian heliotrope, Indian turnsole is an annual, hirsute plant that is a common weed in waste places and settled areas. It is native to Asia. It is widely used in native medicine in Tamil Nadu, India.

<i>Heliotropium anomalum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium anomalum is a species of flowering shrub in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that is native to the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Christmas Island, Saipan, Tinian, Wake Island and New Caledonia. Common names include Polynesian heliotrope, Pacific heliotrope, Scrub heliotrope and hinahina kū kahakai (Hawaiian). H. a. var. argenteum is the official flower of the island Kahoʻolawe in Hawaii.

<i>Lappula squarrosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Lappula squarrosa is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by several common names, including European stickseed, bur forget-me-not, bluebur, and bristly sheepbur. It is native to Europe and Asia, where it is common, and it is an introduced species in much of North America and Africa. It is well known as a noxious weed where it is naturalized and also in many parts of its native range. This is an annual herb producing an erect stem often with sprays of many long, bending branches, its form varying in different regions and climates. The plant may approach a meter in height. The stems are lined with linear to oval leaves up to 5 centimeters long and coated in whitish hairs, and the herbage emits a scent generally considered unpleasant. The inflorescence is a long, leafy raceme of tiny flowers near the ends of the branches. Each flower is 2 to 4 millimeters wide with five light blue corolla lobes. White-flowered plants are occasionally seen. The fruit is a cluster of four nutlets which are coated in hooked prickles. The seeds are dispersed when the prickles get caught on animal coats and human clothing, and when they are moved by wind.

<i>Lythrum hyssopifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Lythrum hyssopifolia is a species of flowering plant in the loosestrife family known by the common names hyssop loosestrife and grass-poly. It is native to Europe but it is known elsewhere, including parts of Australia and eastern and western North America, as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. It is rare in the United Kingdom, with occasional isolated populations. It often grows in moist habitats, such as marshes and wet agricultural fields, rice paddies, for example.

<i>Lythrum portula</i> Species of flowering plant

Lythrum portula is a species of flowering plant in the loosestrife family known by the common names water-purslane and spatulaleaf loosestrife. It is native to Europe, and it is found in parts of western North America as an introduced species. It often grows in moist habitat, such as marshes. This is a prostrate annual herb producing a hairless, reddish stem up to 25 centimeters long which lies along the ground and roots where its nodes come in contact with wet earth. The slightly fleshy, spoon-shaped leaves are about a centimeter long and greenish to reddish in color. Solitary flowers occur in leaf axils. Flowers often have white or pink petals about a millimeter long, but some lack petals. The fruit is a spherical capsule containing minute seeds.

<i>Ranunculus muricatus</i> Species of buttercup

Ranunculus muricatus is a species of buttercup known by the common names rough-fruited buttercup and spinyfruit buttercup. It is native to Europe, but it can be found in many other places in the world, including parts of Africa, Australia, and the western and eastern United States, as an introduced species and agricultural and roadside weed. It grows in wet habitats, such as irrigation ditches. It is an annual or sometimes biennial herb producing a mostly hairless stem up to half a meter long which may grow erect or decumbent along the ground. The leaves have blades a few centimetres in length which are deeply divided into three lobes or split into three leaflets. They are hairless to hairy in texture, and are borne at the tips of long petioles. The flower has five shiny yellow petals under 1 centimetre (0.4 in) long around a lobed central receptacle studded with many stamens and pistils. The fruit is a spiny achene borne in a spherical cluster of 10 to 20.

<i>Reseda alba</i> Species of flowering plant

Reseda alba is a species of flowering plant in the reseda family known by the common names white mignonette or white upright mignonette. It is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and it can be found in parts of the Americas and Australia as an introduced species. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant for its spikelike racemes of fragrant white flowers. This is an annual or perennial herb growing up to a meter tall. The leaves are divided deeply into many narrow lobes. The inflorescence, which may take up most of the upper stem, is densely packed with many white flowers. Each flower has five or six petals, each of which is divided into three long, narrow lobes, making the raceme appear frilly. The fruit is a nearly rectangular four-angled capsule up to 1.4 centimeters in length.

<i>Ruppia cirrhosa</i> Species of aquatic plant

Ruppia cirrhosa is a species of aquatic plant known by the common names spiral ditchgrass and spiral tasselweed. It is native to the Americas and Europe, where it grows in freshwater bodies, such as lakes. It is a thread-thin, grasslike perennial herb which grows from a rhizome anchored in the wet substrate. It produces a long, narrow inflorescence tipped with two tiny flowers. As the fruit develops the peduncle of the inflorescence curls into a neat spiral.

<i>Solanum triflorum</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum triflorum is a species of nightshade known by the common names cutleaf nightshade and small nightshade. It is native to Argentina, but it is known on other continents, including Europe and Australia, as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. It is present throughout much of North America, where it is possibly non-native as well. It grows in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas. It is an annual herb producing spreading, decumbent stems up one meter long. It is hairy, the hairs sometimes associated with glands. The leaves are a few centimeters long and are deeply cut into toothlike lobes. The inflorescence bears two or three flowers each just under a centimeter wide when fully open. The flower is usually white, but is occasionally purple-tinged. The fruit is a berry roughly a centimeter wide.

<i>Trifolium angustifolium</i> Species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae

Trifolium angustifolium is a species of clover known by the common names narrowleaf crimson clover, narrow clover and narrow-leaved clover.

<i>Heliotropium tenellum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium tenellum, the pasture heliotrope, is a species of plant in the heliotrope family. It is native to southeastern and south-central North America, where it is found in limestone glades and rocky prairies.

References

  1. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Heliotropium europaeum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. The MERCK Veterinary Manual, Table 5 Archived 2010-11-17 at the Wayback Machine