Citation: I.M. Johnston, Contr. Gray Herb. 81:75 (1928).

Synonymy: Heliotropium elachanthum F. Muell., Linnaea 25:424 (1853); Eritrichium australasicum sensu Benth., Fl. Aust. 4:406 (1868), partly.

Common name: Hairy forget-me-not.

Description:
Annuals with few to many branches mainly from the base, to 15 cm long, decumbent to procumbent, with flowers along the branches, without a tap root, scarcely covered with forward-directed appressed hairs sometimes with a broad base; leaves densely clustered, opposite and with a broad ciliate sheath at the base in a sparse basal rosette, becoming scattered, alternate and without a sheath on the inflorescences, linear-oblanceolate, 1-4 x 0.1-0.3 cm, bluntly acute to rounded.

Inflorescence terminal, with each branch being a scorpioid cyme with widely spaced flowers with pedicels rarely more than 1 mm when fruiting, with bracts longer than the calyx; sepals scarcely connate basally, c. 2 mm long or to 3.5 mm when fruiting, with lobes linear-lanceolate, acute, densely covered with forward-directed hairs, tough, erect and a loosely sheathing the fruit; corolla narrowly tubular, white, glabrous, c. 2 mm long, without pouches or scales in the throat; lobes oblong to almost square, c. 0.5 mm long, rounded; stamens inserted at about the middle of the corolla tube, with anthers almost sessile, narrowly ovoid, c. 0.4 mm long, drawn into a terminal point but without appendages; ovary 4-lobed, with a style inserted near the base, 0.5-1 mm long, with a terminal capitate stigma.

Mericarps 4, broadly ovoid, with a vertical keel continuing from a raised attachment scar on the ventral side to the apex and on the dorsal side where it becomes part of the coarse reticulum, smooth and glossy.

	Fruiting calyx and mericarp in two views.
Image source: fig. 542A in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 566.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: EP, NL, MU, SE.   N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Sept. — Oct.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Superficially this species is very similar to P. plurisepaleus but distinguished by its scarcely clasping erect calyx lobes when fruiting and the mericarps scarcely longer than broad, with a raised attachment scar with 1-3 wrinkles and coarse reticulum with a smooth and shiny surface. No recent collections of this plant from S.Aust. are known.

Author: Not yet available