Heliotropium muelleri (I.M.Johnst.) Craven

Boraginaceae

Craven, L.A. (2005) Blumea 50: 380.

Usually flowers and fruits as a compact shrub about 2-3 m tall.

Leaf blades about 7-23 x 4.5-15 cm. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in tortuous hairs. Terminal buds and young twigs densely clothed in pale brown appressed hairs.

Flowers attached to one side only of the inflorescence branches with all flowers aligned in the same direction. Calyx lobes with white hairs on the inner and outer surfaces. Corolla about 3-4 mm long with white hairs on the outer surface but glabrous on the inner surface. Ovary glabrous, +/- bottle-shaped. Stigma green.

Nutlets enclosed in a crusty brown hard endocarp. Fruits wider than long, about 5 x 9-10 mm.

Cotyledons +/- orbicular, about 5-9 mm diam. At the tenth leaf stage; all parts of the seedling clothed in white velvety hairs. Seed germination time 14 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in WA, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 300 m. Grows in open forest, particularly along creeks and rivers, gallery forest, monsoon forest and vine thickets.

Tournefortia muelleri I.M.Johnst., Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 16: 157(1935), Type: Queensland, Burdekin River, F. Mueller; holo: MEL?. Tournefortia mollis F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 1: 59(1858), Type: Ad ripas fluvii Burdekin, F. Mueller. Holo: MEL, iso: K. Fide Craven (2005).