Nodding Stickseed (Hackelia deflexa)
Description
The flowers are saucer-shaped to tubular, about 1/8 inch across, light blue to white, with five round petals and a ring of white, arch-shaped appendages around the throat. The sepals are egg-shaped and shorter than the petals. The blossoms open progressively along slender, horizontal racemes at the tips of of the branches; racemes elongate up to 6 inches as the plant matures. A larger leaf-like bract is set at the base of the raceme with subsequent bracts becoming smaller and alternating with the flowers until about the middle of the raceme; beyond the middle they are absent. Leaves are 2 to 5 inches long, up to 1- inch wide, toothless, hairy with a rough texture on the upper surface. Basal leaves are oblong with a rounded tip, and stalked. Stem leaves are alternate, narrowly lance-elliptic, tapered equally at both ends with a pointed or blunt tip, the lower leaves short stalked, the upper leaves becoming progressively smaller and stalkless. Stems are erect, typically single but much branched with short fine hairs throughout. Fruits are round, wider than the flower but less than - inch in diameter, divided into four nutlets with dense velcro-like prickles along the edge of the outer (dorsal) surface, but not covering the surface.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Boraginales
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Family: Boraginaceae
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Genus: Hackelia
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