ECHIUM ARENARIUM

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Sea bugloss

Synonyms:- Echium calycinum subsp. arenarium, Echium diffusum.

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

for a plant that was used to cure snakebite.

Arenarium (L) Sand-dweller, growing in sand.

General description:- Biennial with stiff bristly hairs (hispid).

Stems:-

a) 10-25 cm.

b) with several to many ascending flowering branches.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:-

a) with whitish, short appressed setae.

2) Basal:

a) 30-60 x 5-14 mm.

b) spathulate.

c) long-petiolate.

3) Cauline:

a) spathulate, elliptical or oblong.

b) uppermost stalkless (sessile).

Flowers:-

1) Calyx:

a) 5-7 mm, when the flower is fully open (at anthesis), up to 10 mm in fruit, with

the lobes remaining narrow.

2) Corolla:

a) 6-11 mm.

b) dark blue.

c) all the stamens included.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) ovoid.

b) pale greyish-brown.

c) keeled and rugose.

Key features:-

1) Leaves with indumentum of erecto-patent setae.

2) Calyx 5-7 mm at anthesis, up to 10 mm in fruit with lobes 2-3 mm wide at the

base.

3) Stamens included in corolla.

Habitat:- Dunes and sandy fields near the sea.

Distribution:- Chiefly on Mediterranean islands, including Cyprus, also in S Italy,

Greece and N Africa. On Crete mainly the coastal areas of east and west.

Flowering time:- Jan-Apr.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton