ECHIUM ARENARIUM

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Sea bugloss

Homotypic 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:-

1) 10-25 cm, with several to many ascending flowering branches.

Leaves:-

1) With whitish, short appressed setae.

a) Basal, 30-60 x 5-14 mm, spathulate, long-petiolate.

3) Cauline:

a) spathulate, elliptical or oblong.

b) uppermost, sessile

Flowers:-

1) Calyx 5-7 mm, at anthesis, up to 10 mm in fruit, with the lobes remaining narrow.

2) Corolla, 6-11 mm, dark blue, all the stamens included.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, ovoid. pale greyish-brown, 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.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

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