Citation: Fischer & C. Meyer, Ind. Semin. Petrop. 6:8 (1840).

Synonymy: F. caput-boris Pomel, Nouv. Mal. Fl. Atl. 1:71 (1874); F. cornucopiae sensu J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 802 (1957), partly, non (L.) Gaertner. , Fedia caupt-bovis

Common name: African valerian.

Description:
Annual with branches up to 30 cm long, first unbranched becoming little-branched later, glabrous to sparsely scabrous near the nodes; leaves oblanceolate, spathulate to petiolate and entire at the base, becoming elliptic to ovate, sessile and toothed below the inflorescence, 10-25 x 15-25 mm, obtuse to rounded, glabrous, slightly fleshy.

Inflorescence a dense terminal cymose head with many sessile flowers in 1-3 part-inflorescences; bracts linear-lanceolate, scale-like, hairy; calyx reduced to a ridge with 2 hairy lobes which persist on the fruit; corolla with a slender tube 9-12 mm long, slightly broadened at the base but without a pouch, pink with darker bluish markings around the throat, sparsely hairy outside; lobes oblong to oblanceolate, 2-4 mm and unequally long, the limb usually obliquely placed on the tube: stamens 2, with bluish anthers: ovary inferior, with 3 cells but only 1 fully developed with 1 pendulous ovule, with a slender style and a shortly 2-fid stigma.

Fruit oblong with 2 calyx lobes on a terminal circular ridge, compressed.

	Habit, flower and fruit variation.
Image source: fig. 619c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Alavi (1977) Flora of Libya 46: fig. 2A, B.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: SL.   Native to north-western Africa. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Oct. This species has not been recorded from S.Aust. since 1909.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available