PLANT of the MONTH   ~~   SEPTEMBER 2007
updated on or about the 1st of each month

WILD HELIOTROPE Common Name(s): Wild Heliotrope, Chinese Pusley, Quail Plant Scientific Name: Heliotropium curassavicum Family: Boraginaceae, Borage family Plant Type: Perennial spreading shrub Size: 6-12 inches high, spreading to several feet wide Common Habitat: streambeds, marshes, flats, damp places, or near the coast

Wild Heliotrope is a low, spreading plant with succulent leaves and small white flowers. It is often found in salty or alkaline places like dry streambeds. The photos here were taken on the sandy soil along Crags Road in Malibu Creek State Park, just west of Century Lake. It blooms from March to October.

The flowers of Wild Heliotrope are quite charming and dainty looking, appearing at the ends of 2-4 inch coiling stems that resemble caterpillars. The individual flowers start shaped as a tube then open to 5 petals and are about 1/4 inch in diameter. They are purple in the centers, sometimes with yellow at the base, grading quickly to white at the ends. The fleshy wedge-shaped leaves are about 2 inches long and alternate along the stems.

In researching this plant, surfing the internet for its common name "Wild Heliotrope" often turned up a different plant named Phacelia distans or Common Phacelia. While there are some similarities in flower size and coiling stem, the Phacelia is clearly a different plant. Perhaps they simply liked the name. Apparently so have many others; searching for "Heliotrope" by itself yields quite a range of things, from a song, mineral, color, rash, measuring instrument, company, and dance music artist.

Contributed by Liz Baumann

Curious what was featured in past Plants of the Month? Search the Archives.

REFERENCES:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, by Milt McAuley
Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and Chaparral Regions of Southern California, by Nancy Dale
Roadside Plants of Southern California, by Thomas J. Belzer
California Native Plants for the Garden, by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien