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:-

a) to 1m.

Leaves:-

1) Basal:

a) 20-35 x 1.5-4.0 cm.

b) lance-shaped.

c) with flat-lying (appressed), soft bristles (setae).

2) Cauline:

a) more or less narrowly elliptical.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) 10-12mm long.

b) numerous in a symmetrically branched pyramid.

c) yellowish, pinkish or bluish-white.

2) Calyx:

a) 6-7 mm.

3) Corolla:

a) 10-12 mm.

b) very narrowly funnel-shaped (infundibuliform).

c) with 4-5 long-exserted stamens.

d) filaments pale.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) ovoid-obtusely 3-angled (trigonous).

b) erect.

c) wrinkled (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, usually without sharp

stiff lairs lying ± parallel to and close to the surface (strigose).

3) Inflorescence ± spike-like.

4) Plant usually with a single or a dominant flowering stem 40-100 cm., with stout,

rough (asperous) to stinging setae.

5) 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