Lithospermum officinale, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 86

1. L. officinale L. , Sp. Pl. 132 (1753) .

Perennial; stems 20-100 cm, solitary to many from a stout rhizome, erect, scabridpubescent, much-branched above. Leaves up to 10 x 2 cm, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, sometimes linear-lanceolate, very acute, the middle and upper sessile, discolorous, scabrid-pubescent mainly above. Cymes fairly dense in flower. Calyx-lobes oblonglinear, obtuse. Corolla (3-)4-6 mm, yellowish- or greenishwhite; tube cylindrical, about as long as calyx. Nutlets 2-7-4 mm, ovoid, obtuse or subacute, rounded dorsally, obtusely keeled ventrally. 2« = 28. Hedges, thickets and forest-margins. M ost o f Europe, but rare in parts o f the north and west; only as an alien in Finland. All except Az Cr Fa Is Sb.