ECHIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common name:- Red bugloss. Narrow-leaved bugloss.

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Echium (Gr) Viper, a name used by the Greek physician Dioscorides'

for a plant that was used to cure snakebite.

Angustifolium (L) Narrow-leaved.

General description:- A short to medium, grey-bristly perennial, with a woody

stock.

Stems:-

a) 20-50 cm.

b) erect to sprawling.

c) much-branched, rather irregularly so.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:

a) 20-55 x 3-8 mm.

b) parallel-sided to narrow-oblong.

c) margins often rather wavy.

d) with dense white-bristly hairs (setose).

Flowers:-

1) Corolla:

a) 16-22 mm.

b) funnel-shapes (infundibuliform).

c) reddish or reddish-purple to purplish-violet, frequently changing colour from

one to the other.

2) Stamens:

a) 4, more or less long-exserted.

3) Calyx:

a) 7-10 mm when the flower is fully open (anthesis), up to 15 mm in fruit.

b) with dense white-bristly hairs (setose).

Fruit:-

1) Achenes:

a) 4, with 3 angles.

Key features:-

1) Corolla 16-22 mm, usually reddish-purple.

2) Upper cauline leaves 3-5(-8) mm wide, ± narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate.

Habitat:-ln maritime sand or sometimes in dry, sandy habitats and on loamy road

embankments some distance inland, up to 600 m.

Distribution:- Greece and Crete eastwards, including Cyprus. Widespread and

common on Crete.

Flowering time:- End of Mar. to early June, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton