Jaborosa squarrosa

Description

perennial a few centimetres high overall, the thistle-like root system branching from well below ground level and forming small colonies. Leaves petiolate and glabrous in open rosettes, oblong, 5-7 by 2-3cm, pinnatipartite, the triangular- USES AND CULTURE. ovate lobes entire or three to five-toothed. Flowers many on short pedicels in the heart of the rosettes, the corollas 1.3-1.7cm by 3-4mm, tubular-campanulate, with rather erect short triangular-ovate lobes, the whole very hairy within, light blue to pale mauve or lavender, or nearly white to brilliant violet; a strong fragrance is frequently recorded, summer in the wild. The yellowish-orange berries have a popular local name of 'Inca Tomato' and are used medicinally. Widespread, from southern Peru, Arequipa, and the altiplano of Bolivia to the high Atacama of northern Chile and Argentina, typically on puna moorland or bare plateau at 3000-4700m.