The World Flora Online

Plantes'herbacées, annuelles ou vivaces, érigées, en général ± poilues.'Feuilles'alternes, entières, oblongues ou lancéolées, les basilaires courtement pétiolées, les caulinaires sessiles.'Fleurs'petites, bleues, blanches ou jaunes en cymes scorpioïdes; calice campanulé à 5 dents ou à 5 segments découpés jusqu'en dessous du milieu, le plus souvent étroits, persistants, non ou peu accrescents sous le fruit; corolle à tube cylindrique ou infundibuliforme, à gorge généralement pourvue de gibbosités, écailles ou papilles; lobes 5, étalés, contortés dans le bouton; étamines 5, incluses ou exsertes; filets filiformes; anthères linéaires, ovales ou oblongues-obtuses, à connectif prolongé au sommet par un petit appendice trulliforme; disque nul; ovaire profondément 4-lobé; style gynobasique, filiforme; stigmate obtus.'Fruits composés de 4 nucules dressées, ovoïdes-oblongues, glabres, luisantes, fixées par une petite aréole basilaire sur le réceptacle plan ou convexe.\n\t\t\t\tGenre cosmopolite renfermant une cinquantaine d'espèces, principalement des régions tempérées de l'Ancien Monde et dont les 2 centres de distribution sont l'Europe et la Nouvelle-Zélande. Pour la Flore : 1 espèce.

Herbs annual or perennial, short pubescent or glabrescent. Leaves alternate. Cymes becoming racemelike after anthesis, ebracteate or rarely with few bracts. Calyx 5-lobed or parted, slightly enlarged or not in fruit. Corolla blue or white, rarely light purple, usually salverform, rarely campanulate or funnelform; throat appendages 5, scalelike; lobes 5, spreading, rotund, margin convolute. Stamens included; anthers ovate to elliptic, apex obtuse. Ovary 4-parted. Style linear; stigma discoid, mucronate. Gynobase flat or slightly convex. Nutlets 4, usually ovate, appressed, lenticular, vertical, smooth, shiny; attachment scar basal.

Disc absent Ovary deeply 4-lobed; style gynobasic, filiform; stigma obtuse Fruit composed of 4 erect, oblong-ovoid glabrous shining nutlets fixed by a small basal areole to the flat or convex receptacle. Flowers small in scorpioid cymes Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed or divided to just below the middle into 5 mostly narrow lobes, persistent, not or slightly accrescent in fruit Corolla blue, white or yellow; tube cylindric or funnel-shaped, the throat usually with scales, papillae or swellings; lobes 5, spreading, contorted in bud Stamens 5, included or exserted; filaments filiform; anthers linear, with the connective prolonged into a small trulliform appendage Leaves alternate, mostly oblong or lanceolate, entire, the basal ones shortly petiolate, the cauline ones sessile Annual or perennial erect usually hairy herbs Ovary deeply 4-lobed; style gynobasic, filiform; stigma obtuse Fruit composed of 4 erect, oblong-ovoid glabrous shining nutlets fixed by a small basal areole to the flat or convex receptacle. Flowers small in scorpioid cymes Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed or divided to just below the middle into 5 mostly narrow lobes, persistent, not or slightly accrescent in fruit Corolla blue, white or yellow; tube cylindric or funnel-shaped, the throat usually with scales, papillae or swellings; lobes 5, spreading, contorted in bud Stamens 5, included or exserted; filaments filiform; anthers linear, with the connective prolonged into a small trulliform appendage Leaves alternate, mostly oblong or lanceolate, entire, the basal ones shortly petiolate, the cauline ones sessile Annual or perennial erect usually hairy herbs