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Boraginaceae family

Bushy Heliotrope Heliotropium ternatum

Native Specialist-bee host

Bushy Heliotrope is a perennial shrub native to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Euploca humilis, the dwarf tournefortia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Heliotropiaceae. It is native to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and most of Brazil. Originally described by Linnaeus in 1753, molecular and morphological evidence led to its transfer from Tournefortia to Euploca in 2016. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host

Recorded feeding on Heliotropium in North America, including:

Manduca rustica · Rustic Sphinx Moth Udea rubigalis · Celery Leaftier
Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Heliotropium is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (8) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — GloBI · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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