7109.000 Lithospermum L.

Perennial herbs or undershrubs. Leaves alternate, entire. Flowers 5-merous, actinomorphic, on leafy terminal or axillary cymes. Calyx lobed to near the base. Corolla cylindric to infundibuliform, orange, yellowish or whitish; tube with 5 more or less glandular invaginations in the throat and with a ring of nectaries at the base, inside; lobes imbricate in bud. Ovary with 4 free lobes, inserted on the narrow gynobase. Fruit dry, consisting of 4 nutlets or less by abortion; nutlets detaching completely from the receptacle, ovoid to ellipsoid, erect, smooth, white and shining, with the dorsal surface convex and the ventral one obtusely angular with a flat or convex point of attachment.

Worldwide: 60 species in temperate regions, mainly North America.

Malawi: 1 taxon.