OF THE CAROLINAS & GEORGIA

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Lamiids: Boraginales? order assignment uncertain

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Lithospermum virginianum   FAMILY Boraginaceae   Go to FSUS key



SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Onosmodium virginianum   FAMILY Boraginaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)

Lithospermum virginianum

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 161-06-001:

Onosmodium virginianum   FAMILY Boraginaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)

Onosmodium virginianum

 

COMMON NAME:
Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed


         To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913    pnd_onvi2_001_lvd

        

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

Richard and Teresa Ware    rtw_l_virginianum_2

June        

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

Richard and Teresa Ware    rtw_lithospermumvirgi

June        

Flowers borne in a distinctive, leafy, coiled inflorescence [helicoid cyme], per Atlantic Coastal Plain Wildflowers (Nelson, 2006).

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

Richard and Teresa Ware    rtw_l_virginianum_c

July        

The mostly oblong leaves 1-5" long. All parts of the herbage hairy, rough, per Atlantic Coastal Plain Wildflowers (Nelson, 2006).

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0393

October    Oconee County    SC

The leaves have characteristically parallel veins that are deeply sunken on the upper surface, per Vascular Plants of North Carolina.

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0397

October    Oconee County    SC

Fruits are hard, white, smooth, glossy, ovoid nutlets, 2-2.8mm long, per Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region (Sorrie, 2011).

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0399

October    Oconee County    SC

Stems covered with stiff, uni-directional hairs, per Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019).

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0400

October    Oconee County    SC

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0402

October    Oconee County    SC

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0405

October    Oconee County    SC

It seems to occur in very small populations, consisting often of fewer than five plants, per Weakley's Flora (2022).

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0406

October    Oconee County    SC

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0408

October    Oconee County    SC

Fruit a tiny, faintly pitted, dull white nutlet, per Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019).

image of Lithospermum virginianum, Virginia Marbleseed, Virginia False Gromwell, Pineland Marbleseed

JK Marlow    jkm221015_0409

October    Oconee County    SC

 

 

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Lithospermum virginianum   FAMILY Boraginaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Onosmodium virginianum   FAMILY Boraginaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Lithospermum virginianum

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 161-06-001:
Onosmodium virginianum   FAMILY Boraginaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Onosmodium virginianum

 

Find by SCIENTIFIC NAME:

2738

Forb
Perennial

Habitat: Longleaf pine sandhills, shell middens in the outer Coastal Plain, woodlands and barrens over diabase and other mafic rocks in the Piedmont and low Mountains, barrens, glades, or woodlands over calcareous rocks in the Mountains (the unifying ecological factor determining its distribution may be an open, woodland condition maintained by fire), per Weakley's Flora

Native to the Carolinas & Georgia

Common in GA & SC Coastal Plain (rare in NC, uncommon elsewhere in GA-NC-SC)

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

Click here to see a map showing all occurrences known to SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria. (Zoom in to see more detail.)

LEAVES:
Simple
Mostly alternate
Margins entire

FLOWER:
Spring/Summer/Fall
Yellow to orange, pale greenish, pale cream-yellow
5-parted calyx
5-lobed tubular to tubular-funnelform corolla
5 stamens
Superior ovary
Bisexual

Inflorescence a leafy helicoid cyme

FRUIT:
Spring/Summer/Fall
White
Schizocarp of specialized mericarps (nutlets)

 

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!



 


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