1. Brunnera macrophylla (Adams) I.M. Johnst. (Siberian bugloss)

Map 1290, Pl. 305 g–i

Plants perennial herbs, with stout, horizontal rhizomes. Stems 15–50 cm long, erect or ascending, solitary or few to several, mostly unbranched below the inflorescence, sparsely to moderately pubescent with patches of minute, appressed hairs and also with scattered, short, stiff, spreading, minutely pustular-based hairs. Leaves alternate and basal. Basal leaves with a long petiole 8–12 cm long, this unwinged or winged only at the tip, the blade 4–20 cm long, 25–120 mm wide, more or less heart-shaped, shallowly to deeply cordate at the base, angled to a sharply pointed tip, the surfaces and margins moderately pubescent with minute, appressed hairs and also with scattered, short, stiff, spreading, minutely pustular-based hairs. Stem leaves long- to short-petiolate, the uppermost often sessile, the blade 1–8 cm long, 5–50 mm wide, ovate to somewhat heart-shaped, shallowly cordate to rounded at the base, otherwise similar to those of the basal leaves. Inflorescence panicles with ascending to spreading branches, these scorpioid, spikelike racemes, the flowers with stalks 2–8 mm long, lacking bracts. Calyces actinomorphic, 5-lobed nearly to the base, the lobes 1.5–2.0 mm long, not becoming noticeably enlarged at fruiting, narrowly triangular, minutely appressed-hairy, occasionally with a few longer, bristly hairs, persistent and ascending at fruiting. Corollas 3–4 mm long, trumpet-shaped to nearly saucer-shaped, actinomorphic, bright blue, the tube 0.8–1.5 mm long, the throat with small, scalelike appendages (these often 2-lobed, with dense, minute papillae, white or yellow), the lobes 1.0–1.5 mm long, spreading, rounded. Stamens attached toward the midpoint of the corolla tube, the filaments very short, the anthers oblong, positioned just below the scales, not exserted from the corolla. Ovary deeply 4-lobed, the style short, not exserted from the corolla, often more or less persistent at fruiting, the stigma capitate, somewhat 2-lobed. Fruits dividing into mostly 4 nutlets, these 2.5–3.5 mm long, erect to slightly oblique, oblong-ovoid, attached to the relatively flat gynobase at the base, the attachment scar surrounded by a collarlike ring, bluntly pointed at the tip, the surface irregularly wrinkled and roughened, the wrinkles appearing longitudinal toward the nutlet base, white to grayish white. 2n=12. May–June.

Introduced, uncommon, known thus far from a single collection from Boone County (native of Europe and Asia, introduced uncommonly in Missouri, possibly also Ohio, New York). Alleys.

This species was first reported for Missouri by Dunn (1982). It is a common garden perennial. A number of cultivars are available commercially, including several with variegated foliage.