Africa Wild

Index to Flowers of unplaced Families (Incertae sedis)

Family: Boraginaceae
Anchusa capensis Cape-forget-me-not viewtopic.php?p=196901#p196901
Heliotropium lineare Narrow-leaved String-of-stars viewtopic.php?p=489357#p489357
Heliotropium nelsonii, Heliotropium steudneri String of Stars, Common Heliotrope viewtopic.php?f=248&t=3741#p170668

String of Stars, Common Heliotrope Heliotropium nelsonii, Heliotropium steudneri
Order: Incertae sedis. Family: Boraginaceae

© Pumbaa

© Pumbaa
Kruger National Park

© Heksie
Kruger National Park

Description
Perennial herb, erect, up to 90 cm tall. Stems and branches densely appressed-hairy. Leaves alternate, often almost opposite, narrow lance-shaped, tapering to both ends, blunt, up to 5 cm long x 5 mm wide. Inflorescences single or forked, up to 10 cm long; flowers closely set, 7 mm long x 5 mm diam. Corolla entirely white or white with a yellow throat; tube 3.5-5.5 mm long, bearing forwardly-directed hairs; lobes oblong, obtuse to truncate, usually with markedly undulate margin. Fruit smooth, glabrous, obpyriform, depressed between the pairs of nutlets.

Distribution
East Africa, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa (Provincial distribution: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West).

Habitat
In open areas, such as grassland and bushland, on dry, poor, often sandy soils. Up to 1370 m.

Links: Swaziland's Flora Database

Cape-forget-me-not Anchusa capensis (Koringblom, Ystergras)
Family: Boraginaceae


Namaqualand 8.10.2012

Description
Anchusa capensis is a strong growing annual (may be perennial) herb up to 1 m tall. The much branched and tall stems taper to a notably thinner form higher up on the plant, compared to the basal ones. Stems are red to purple when young. The sessile leaves are narrow and hairy. It has tall stems of blue flowers shooting up from clumps of bright green leaves. The long narrow leaves are soft, but rough and hairy when touched. Each plant has many flowering stems which grow to 1 metre. The stems are thick at the bottom getting thinner as they extend, with the new growth often a beautiful deep red. The many blue flowers are carried on smaller branches which are borne all up the top half of the stem, which ends in a small cluster of flowers at the tip. Close up, the small flowers are beautiful with 5 bright blue petals and 5 feathery white scales in the center protecting the stigma and anthers. The seeds develop inside little green cups, which are formed by the 5 sepals that have united. Inside each cup three seeds or little nuts turn hard and black as they ripen, usually about a month after flowering. Every plant produces hundreds of seeds.

Distribution
Anchusa capensis is native to Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa (Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Western Cape).

Habitat
It is often found in areas where natural vegetation has been disturbed, such as roadsides and fallow agricultural land on dry, sandy ground.

Links: John Manning: Field Guide to Fynbos

Narrow-leaved String-of-stars Heliotropium lineare
Order: Incertae sedis. Family: Boraginaceae

© nan
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Distribution
Namibia, Botswana, South Africa (Provincial distribution: Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West).

Description
Erect perennial herb up to 45 cm high, with a thin rootstock and usually branched from the base; stem and branches angular, densely strigose with 2-armed trichomes. Leaves linear.