新疆天芥菜 xin jiang tian jie cai

Heliotropium radula Fischer & C. A. Meyer; H. xin-jiangense Y. L. Liu.

Herbs perennial, shrubby, 25-30 cm tall. Stems erect or ascending, branched from base, densely pubescent, with ribs and flaking white bark; branches crowded. Petiole short, 3-5 mm, or subsessile, white pubescent; leaf blade gray-green, oblong-elliptic to oblong or ovate, 1-2 × 0.5-1 mm, abaxially soft pubescent, adaxially scabrous, densely appressed hirsute and hirtellous, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin subrevolute, apex obtuse to acute; lateral veins 2 or 3 pairs. Cymes terminal and axillary, scorpioid, 1-2.5 cm wide, pubescent, ebracteate. Flowers sessile. Calyx 1.5-2 mm, parted nearly to base, densely gray pubescent outside, glabrous inside; lobes narrowly ovate or oblong. Corolla white, tubular, 2-3.5 mm, base ca. 1 mm wide; limb ca. 1 mm wide, densely antrorse pubescent outside, glabrous inside; lobes orbicular, margin crispate. Filaments extremely short, inserted above middle of corolla tube; anthers ovate, ca. 0.5 mm. Ovary ellipsoid, glabrous. Style ca. 1 mm, glabrous; stigma short conical, 0.5-2 mm, glabrous, base ringlike. Fruit ellipsoid, divided at maturity into 4 1-seeded mericarps; mericarps ovate, 2-3 mm, densely villous. Fl. and fr. Aug.

Dunes. N Xinjiang (Huocheng Xian) [Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan]

Heliotropium xinjiangense differs from H. arguzioides only by having a longer conical stigma 1-2 mm (instead of ca. 0.5 mm). However, since stigma length is variable and unreliable, the two are considered conspecific.