Heliotropium giessii M.Friedrich

Erect perennial herb up to 50(100) cm high, woody at the base, strong; stem and branches subterete, clothed with short white retrorse hairs and with some longer antrorse ones, rarely all antrorse. Leaves alternate; petiole 0-8(15) mm long with hair-covering like the branches; lamina 30-120 x 8-25 mm, lanceolate to oblong, hairy or rough above, hairy to tomentose below, densely covered with the swollen bases of the hairs, acute to rounded at apex, acute to obtuse at base, often asymmetrical, margins entire or repand, secondary nerves 4-5 on each side of the midrib. Cymes dense usually short, in groups of 2-4(5) on each terminal peduncle. Flowers sessile or subsessile. Calyx villous outside and inside; lobes 3.0-3.5 x 0.5-0.8 mm, narrowly ovate to narrowly oblong, acute to rounded at apex, erect. Corolla white; tube 4-6 mm long, slightly swollen over the anthers, clothed with short retrorse hairs outside, glabrous inside, with 5 longitudinal folds on the second third inside, on the line of the corolla lobes; limb 3-4 mm in diam., spreading, subglabrous, lobes 1.2-1.5 x 0.8-1.3 mm, oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded at apex and with undulate margins. Stamens inserted at 2/3 from base on the corolla tube; anthers 1.2-1.5 mm long, lanceolate, apiculate, apex reaching the mouth, subsessile. Ovary ovoid, glabrous. Style 2-3 mm long, swollen to the apex, with very short retrorse hairs on the upper half; stigmatic ring c. 0.5 mm in diam.; sterile appendix 0.6-0.8 mm long, conical, bifid, roughish or hirtellous. Fruits c. 2.5 x 3.0 mm, subglobulous, 4-lobed, pustulate, enclosed in the calyx; nutlets free.