Tricardia

Tricardia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: (unplaced)
Family: Boraginaceae
Genus: Tricardia
Torr. ex S.Watson
Species: T. watsonii
Binomial name
Tricardia watsonii
Torr. ex S.Watson

Tricardia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the borage family containing the single species Tricardia watsonii, which is known by the common name threehearts.[1] It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in deserts and mountains in sandy open habitat, often beneath shrubs. It is a perennial herb growing from a taproot and a woody caudex covered with the shreddy remains of previous seasons' herbage. It produces several erect stems up to about 40 centimeters tall. Most of the leaves are located in a basal rosette about the caudex. They are lance-shaped and coated thinly in woolly hairs. They are up to 9 centimeters long and are borne on petioles. A few smaller leaves occur higher on the stem. Flowers occur in a loose cyme at the top of the stem. Each has a calyx of five sepals. The outer three are heart-shaped and green to pink or purple in color, and the inner two are much smaller and narrower. The flower within is bell-shaped, white with central purple markings, and roughly half a centimeter wide. The fruit is a capsule just under a centimeter long which contains 4 to 8 seeds.

References

  1. "Tricardia watsonii". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
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