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Lithospermum incisum - (image 1 of 7)

Taxonomy

Family: Boraginaceae

Habitat

 Dry prairies, sandy habitats, hill prairies.

Associates

In dry prairies with Amorpha canescens, Andropogon scoparius, Arenaria stricta, Aster ptarmicoides, Aster sericeus, Bouteloua curtipendula, Coreopsis lanceolata, Echinacea pallida, Euphorbia corollata, Kuhnia eupatoroides corymbulosa, Petalostemum purpureum, Potentilla arguta, Psoralea tenuiflora, Sporobolus heterolepsis.

Distribution

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Morphology

Herbaceous perennial. Leaves linear, up to 5(8)mm wide. Flowers yellow; the early flowers apparently sterile, the corolla tubes more than 14mm long; later flowers fertile and cleistogamous, exceeded by the calyx lobes, the tubes about 3mm long. Fruiting pedicels mostly arching or recurved; the fruit a white, shiny nutlet, with a basal collar and pitted.

Notes

Flowers early May to mid July.

Wetland indicator: Upland

It is interesting that this species doesn't appear to cross-pollinate. Cleistogamy refers to fertilization without pollination, self-fertilization. In other plants, like violets, the early flowers can potentially cross-pollinate. Perhaps there is an animal specific to this species that is able to navigate the long corolla tube of the early flowers?  

Bibliography

Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.

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