Heliotropium pannifolium
| Heliotropium pannifolium | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Heliotropium pannifolium | ||||||||||||
| Burch. ex Hemsl. |
Heliotropium pannifolium is an extinct species of the family of the Borage Family (Boraginaceae). It was endemic to St. Helena .
description
Heliotropium pannifolium was a shrub that reached a height of one meter. The entire plant was covered with hair. The numerous stem-round branches were leafy. The bark was dark brown. The alternate leaves were ten to twelve centimeters long and four centimeters wide. They were entire, wavy, elongated, blunt, almost heart-shaped at the base, softly hairy everywhere, somewhat thickened and slightly fleshy. The leaf veins were protruding from the underside of the leaf and reticulated and indented on the upper side of the leaf. The petioles were two inches long. Stipules were not present.
The stalked, terminal, umbilical inflorescence was as long as the leaves. The sessile flowers were small. The hairy calyx was tubular at the base and had five calyx lobes above. The corolla was shaped like a tray. The corolla tube was hairy on the outside. There were five stamens . The stylus were short and split in two at the tip. Four solitary nuts were formed.
status
Heliotropium pannifolium is known only from the holotype from 1808 that William John Burchell collected in the Sandy Bay region at the outflow of Broad Gut. This specimen is now in the Kew Herbarium. However, the flowers have been almost completely destroyed by insects.
literature
- QCB Cronk: The endemic Flora of St Helena , Anthony Nelson Ltd, Oswestry 2000, ISBN 0904614352 .
- William Botting Hemsley, C. Wyville Thomson and John Murray: Report on the scientific results of the voyage of HMS Challenger during the years 1873-76: under the command of Captain George S. Nares, RN, FRS and Captain Frank Turle Thomson, RN (1885)