ECHIUM ITALICUM

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common name:- Pale bugloss

Synonyms:- Echium italicum subsp. biebersteinii, Echium pyrenaicum var.

italicum, Isoplesion italicum.

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

for a plant that was used to cure snakebite.

Italicum (L) From Italy, Italian.

General description:- Robust, erect, medium to tall biennial, with dense white or

yellowish bristles (hispid); forming large leafy rosettes in the first year.

Stem:-

1) To 1m.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, 20-35 x 1.5-4.0 cm. lanceolate, appressed with soft setae.

2) Cauline, more or less narrowly elliptical.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, 10-12mm long, numerous in a symmetrically branched pyramid.

yellowish, pinkish or bluish-white.

2) Calyx, 6-7 mm.

3) Corolla, 10-12 mm, very narrowly infundibuliform.

4) Stamens, 4-5, long-exserted.

a) filaments pale.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, ovoid-obtusely trigonous, erect, rugose with a flat base.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, 10-12 mm. usually yellowish- or bluish-white.

2) Basal leaves, usually ± lanceolate, attenuate at the base.

3) Inflorescence ± spike-like.

4) Filaments pale.

Habitat:- Rocky and sandy coastal habitats, roadsides, waste ground, hillslopes.

0-1200 m.

Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean area and SW Asia, Greece and

Crete eastwards, including Cyprus. Widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-July.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton