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Echium vulgare
Species of flowering plant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Echium vulgare, known as viper's bugloss and blueweed,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the borage family Boraginaceae. It is native to most of Europe and western and central Asia[2][3] and it occurs as an introduced species in north-eastern North America, south-western South America and the South and North Island of New Zealand.[1][4] If eaten, the plant is toxic to horses and cattle through the accumulation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the liver.[5][6]
The plant root was used in ancient times as a treatment for snake or viper bites.[7][8] According to the Doctrine of signatures, plants were thought to have traits (in this case a speckled stem reminiscent of snake skin, and flowers like an open viper's mouth) that mirror the ailment they treat. [9][10]
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Description
It is a biennial or monocarpic perennial plant growing to 30–80 cm (12–31 in) tall, with rough, hairy, oblanceolate leaves.[11] The stems, which are red-flecked, resemble snake's skin and even the fruits are shaped like adders' heads.[12] The flowers start pink and turn vivid blue, and are 15–20 mm (0.59–0.79 in) in a branched spike, with all the stamens protruding. The pollen is blue[13] but the filaments of the stamens remain red, contrasting against the blue flowers. It flowers between May and September in the Northern Hemisphere. The Latin specific epithet vulgare means common.[7]
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Distribution
It is native to Europe and temperate Asia. It has been introduced to Chile,[14] New Zealand[15] and North America, where it is naturalised in parts of the continent including northern Michigan,[3] being listed as an invasive species in Washington.[16] It is found in dry, calcareous grassland and heaths, bare and waste places, along railways and roadsides and on coastal cliffs, sand dunes and shingle.[17]
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Cultivation
E. vulgare is cultivated as an ornamental plant, and numerous cultivars have been developed. The cultivar 'Blue Bedder' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[18][19]
Gallery
Being pollinated by skipper butterflies
Illustration
Closeup of flower
Colonizing the banks of a Montreal city highway
Extensive occurrence near Waldems-Wüstems in the Taunus
See also
References
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