毛果天芥菜 mao guo tian jie cai

Heliotropium eichwaldii Steudel var. lasiocarpum (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) C. B. Clarke; H. ellipticum Ledebour var. lasiocarpum (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Popov; H. europaeum var. lasiocarpum (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Kazmi.

Herbs annual, ca. 40 cm tall. Stems erect, sometimes woody at base, low branched, densely spreading or curved, white pubescent or sometimes hirtellous. Petiole 1-3 cm, densely pubescent or hirtellous; leaf blade obovate to elliptic-ovate, 2-6 × 1.5-3.5 cm, white pubescent or hirtellous, base widely cuneate to rounded, margin entire, apex obtuse; lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, usually densely pubescent. Cymes terminal and axillary, scorpioid, 8-15 cm; branches usually paired, rarely ternate, ebracteate. Flowers sessile. Calyx parted nearly to base; lobes lanceolate, 3-3.5 × 0.5-1 mm, densely pubescent. Corolla white, tubular-campanulate, 4-4.5 mm, pubescent outside, glabrous inside; lobes rounded, 1-1.5 mm wide, with an erect or spreading fold between lobes. Anthers sessile, 1-1.2 mm, inserted ca. 1 mm above base, apex abruptly attenuate. Ovary globose, ca. 1 mm in diam., glabrous. Style extremely short or obscure; stigma ringlike, ca. 5 mm wide, sterile upper portion ca. 1 mm, 2-cleft. Fruit 2-2.5 mm in diam., dividing into 4 1-seeded mericarps; mericarps ovate, densely short strigose, sparsely tuberculate. Fl. and fr. Jun.

Deserts at low elevations, gravelly river marshes, meadows. N Henan, SW Shanxi, N Xinjiang [India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].