Japanese name: ホタルカズラ（蛍葛） Scientific name:Lithospermum zollingeri
[Overview]
A perennial found in sunny grassland and on slopes in dry woodland.
The whole plant is covered with coarse hairs.
After flowering, long runners extend from the base of the plant, bear leaves at their tips, root, and become young plants.
The root is brown and contains a purple dye.
There are basal leaves and leaves alternate on the stem; the basal leaves are oblong, 2–6 cm long and 0.6–2 cm wide, with entire margins.
The upper leaf surface has hairs with disk-shaped bases.
Blue flowers 1.5 cm across bloom in the inflorescence at the stem tip.
The corolla is 5-lobed, and a white ridge runs down the center of each lobe, giving the flower a white star-shaped pattern.
The fruit is a schizocarp.
[Uses]
The seeds are used medicinally.
[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or by division.
It prefers a sunny, well-drained site; a spot such as under deciduous trees that give partial shade in summer is suitable.
