Heliotropium curassavicum var. oculatum

Seaside heliotrope, alkali heliotrope, Alkali Heliotrope

Family: Heliotropiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Seaside heliotrope is a California native perennial found in coastal and southern California regions in moist to dry, saline to alkaline soils near water at elevations below 2,250 meters. Flowering from February to October, this plant produces white flowers with a distinctive blue-purple throat, arranged in small spike-like clusters typically 3 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Growing with prostrate to ascending fleshy stems 10 to 60 centimeters long, the plant spreads with a occasionally rhizome-like root system. Its leaves are glabrous, oblanceolate, 1 to 6 centimeters long, and arranged with short petioles or nearly sessile along the stem. The plant produces smooth nutlets in clusters of four, creating distinctive seed formations in its habitat.

Habitat: Moist to dry, saline to alkaline soils, generally near water

Bloom period: Feb-Oct

Elevation: < 2250 m

Bioregions: CA (exc KR, NCoRH, c SNH)

California counties: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Riverside, Orange, Kern, Imperial, Yolo, Inyo, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Lake, Mono, Monterey, Fresno, San Joaquin, Modoc, Santa Clara, San Benito, Alameda, Humboldt, San Mateo, Tulare, Solano, Tehama, Sonoma, Merced, Colusa, Marin, Santa Cruz, Mendocino, Siskiyou, Glenn, Lassen, Plumas, Kings, Contra Costa, Napa, Sutter, Stanislaus, Sacramento

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.