Family: Boraginaceae
Anchusa capensis
Citation:
Thunb., Prod. Pl. Cap. 34 (1800).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Cape forget-me-not.
Description:
Annuals or biennials to 50 cm high, with one to several erect stems from a basal rosette, with a distinct tap root, covered with fine hairs of various length and usually with a broad base; leaves densely clustered, petiolate to sessile and usually oblanceolate in the basal rosette becoming widely spaced, sessile and lanceolate below the inflorescence, 4-25 x 0.8-2.5 cm, pointed, with an entire margin.
Inflorescence terminal, with 1 to many monochasia which are at times dichotomously branched and with almost sessile flowers densely arranged in 2 rows, with bracts as long as or shorter than the calyx; sepals half to two-thirds of their length connate, 4-5 mm long and scarcely elongating when fruiting, with lobes linear, obtuse; corolla narrowly funnel-shaped, blue with a white throat, glabrous except for pubescent saccate protrusions in the throat, 6-8 mm long; lobes broadly ovate, c. 3 mm long, with a rounded apex; stamens inserted just below the throat, with anthers sessile, linear-ellipsoid, c. 2 mm long, without appendages; ovary 4-lobed, with a style inserted near the base, c. 4 mm long, distinctly broadened towards the base and with a terminal capitate stigma.
Mericarps obliquely ovoid with a vertically keeled to winged ridge on one side, rugose and minutely tuberculate, pale-brown.
| Habit, flower and mericarps in three views.
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Image source: fig. 532B in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Distribution:
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S.Aust.: FR, EP, SL, SE. W.Aust.; Vic. Native to the Cape Province of southern Africa.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: Sept. — Feb.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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