Heliotropium fuliginosum

Native from western South America to Venezuela, this shrub or small tree grows along forest edges, roadsides and in regenerating vegetation. It can reach about twenty feet tall. Young branches and leaves have soft brown hairs, especially dense on the leaf undersides. Numerous small, pale greenish-white flowers grow along tightly coiled branches that lengthen as flowering continues. Rounded fruits turn purple when ripe. In Colombia, it occurs in both dry and moist forests at about 1,600 to 5,900 feet. Photographed in Panama.