Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Western marbleseed

WESTERN MARBLESEED

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Onosmodium molle Michx.

Chase County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 18-48 inches

Family: Boraginaceae - Borage Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

False gromwell.

Stems:

Erect, several to many, branched above, covered with stiff white hairs.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, sessile, lanceolate to ovate, 2 to 5 inches long, .5 to 1.25 inch wide, stiff-hairy, 5-7 prominent veins beneath; basal leaves usually absent at flowering.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, coiled, terminal.

Flowers:

5-parted, sessile; calyces 5-lobed, sepals narrowly lanceolate, stiff-hairy; corollas 5-lobed, narrowly tube-shaped, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, dull white, lobes converging, hairy; stamens 5; style thread-like, extending beyond tips of corollas.

Fruits:

1-4 nutlets, oval, hard, whitish, 1-seeded.

Habitat:

Dry, sandy or gravelly prairies, pastures and open woods, most abundant on hillsides in alkaline soils.

Distribution:

Throughout except southwest corner of Kansas.

Uses:

Some Great Plains tribes mixed crushed leaves and stems of western marbleseed with grease and used it as a rub to treat numbness and rheumatism.

Comments:

Western marbleseed has grayish green foliage. The name "marbleseed" comes from the hard, shiny, white nutlets that it produces.

Western marbleseed