Baill.
Description
Lindelofia longiflora (Benth.) Baill. is a robust perennial herb of the borage family native to the western and central Himalaya and the adjoining mountains of Central Asia. Its core native range covers Pakistan, northern India and Nepal, with numerous additional records from Europe, North America, Russia and New Zealand reflecting its cultivation as an ornamental and its escape from gardens. It grows in open subalpine and alpine meadows, on grassy slopes, forest margins and stony banks, generally between about 2,500 and 4,000 m. The photographed plant at Kalomura in Nepal, recorded at 3,710 m in June, is typical of its preference for moist, well-drained montane grassland during the early monsoon flush.
The plant develops from a stout, woody rootstock, producing erect, leafy, bristly-hairy stems. The leaves are alternate, the lower long-petiolate and the upper sessile, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, entire and roughly hispid on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a terminal, often branched, scorpioid cyme bearing nodding flowers; the corolla is deep violet-blue to purple, tubular and conspicuously long, exceeding the calyx, with prominent scales (fornices) in the throat. The fruit comprises four nutlets that are flattened and marginally winged with a row of hooked, glochidiate spines aiding epizoochorous dispersal.
Lindelofia belongs to tribe Cynoglosseae, near Cynoglossum and Adelocaryum, and the long-tubed, winged-nutlet morphology distinguishes it within the group. The species is widely grown in alpine and herbaceous-border horticulture, which accounts for its scattered naturalised occurrences across temperate regions. Within its native Himalayan range it remains common and is not considered threatened, while in some introduced areas its self-sowing habit warrants monitoring.
Author: Baill. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Kazmi: Boraginaceae of West Pakistan and Kashmir