Lithospermum ruderale
Western Gromwell (Stoneseed)
Family: Boraginaceae (Borage family)
Photo taken at Anderson Canyon, dry open hillside
© 2000 Thayne Tuason
Flowers:
borne in modified leafly-bracteate cymes, or singular in upper leaf axils; calyx deeply cleft; corolla more or less salverform, pale yellowish, often greenish tinted, 8 to 40 mm long by 7 to 13 mm wide
Leaves:
generally cauline and sessile or subsessile, strigose to soft hairy, linear to lanceolate, most are greater than 10 cm by 10 mm
Plant:
perennial; 5 to 60 cm tall with clustered unbranched stems; hairs more or less spreading
Habitat:
common in open, dry slopes, plains and shrub-steppe, up to mid elevation in the mountains
Distribution of species:
cheifly east Cascades, northwestern North America to California
Distribution of genus:
75 species: worldwide, generally in temperate or mountain regions
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