SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ECHIUM PARVIFLORUM
Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE
Common Names:- Small-flowered bugloss.
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Echium (Gr) Viper, a name used by the Greek physician Dioscorides'
for a plant that was used to cure snakebite.
Parviflorum (L) Small-flowered.
General description:- Short to medium bristly annual or biennial.
Stems:-
1) Rarely exceeding 40cm in height. several or many ascending to erect.
Leaves:-
1) With sparse to dense appressed setae.
1) Basal, 5.5-12 x 5-2.5 cm., spatulate to oblanceolate, long-petiolate.
2) Cauline, obovate or oblong, uppermost sessile.
Flowers:-
1) Calyx, 6-8 mm at anthesis, up to 15 mm with wide lobes in fruit.
2) Corolla, 10-13 mm, campanulate, pale or dark blue.
a) stamens, 5. included.
Fruit:-
1) Nutlets, 2 or 4, (rarely 1 or 3 by abortion)
Key features:-
1) All stamens, completely included in corolla-tube.
2) Calyx, 6-8 mm at anthesis, up to 15 mm in fruit with lobes 3-6 mm wide at the
base.
Habitat:- Dry rocky and sandy habitats, fields, fallow and waste ground, roadsides,
occasionally on the coast. 0-600 m.
Distribution:- Few and scattered records in W Greece - Widespread in the
Mediterranean area, probably extending to W Syria. Widespread and fairly common
on Crete around coastal areas.
Flowering time:- Mar-June.
Photos by:- Popi Bormpoudaki and Steve Lenton
