Echium vulgare L.
viper's bugloss
Densely scabrid or hispid annual or biennial herb to c. 90 cm high but often much less. Basal lvs to c. 15 × 5 cm, linear-lanceolate, lanceolate, or lanceolate-elliptic; base attenuate and petiolate; apex acute; upper cauline lvs smaller, sessile, commonly linear or nearly so, rounded at base. Infl. simple or with several branches; branches becoming spike-like or paniculate. Calyx 5-8 mm long; lobes linear, < corolla tube. Corolla 12-18 mm long, pink in bud, becoming blue, rarely remaining completely pale pink and even more rarely white; upper lobes > lower. Stamens purplish pink, very rarely whitish, 4 long-exserted on filiform filaments, fifth included or slightly exserted. Nutlets c. 2 mm long, sharply angular.
N.; S.: common throughout, particularly in inland drier parts of the South Id.
Asia Minor, Europe 1870
Roadsides, open waste and disturbed land, stony riverbeds.
FL (Oct)-Nov-Jan-(May).
Viper's bugloss is sometimes so abundant that in early summer roadsides are a dense sea of blue. It is considered a noxious weed in some places. In N.Z. E. vulgare is often called borage which has lead to confusion with Borago officinalis to which the common name borage is more correctly applied. E. vulgare is sometimes confused with E. plantagineum, especially when plants are young, but in addition to the characters given in the key, the lvs of E. vulgare are harsher to the touch.
