SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ECHIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM
Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE
Common name:- Red bugloss. Narrow-leaved 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.
Angustifolium (L) Narrow-leaved.
General description:- A short to medium, grey-bristly perennial, with a woody
stock.
Stems:-
1) 20-50 cm, erect to sprawling, much-branched, rather irregularly so.
Leaves:-
1) 20-55 x 3-8 mm. linear to narrow-oblong, margins often rather wavy, white-
setose.
Flowers:-
1) Corolla, 16-22 mm, infundibuliform, reddish or reddish-purple to purplish-violet,
frequently changing colour from one to the other.
2) Stamens, 4, more or less long-exserted.
3) Calyx, 7-10 mm at anthesism, up to 15 mm in fruit, setose,
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 4, with 3 angles.
Key features:-
1) Corolla, 16-22 mm, usually reddish-purple.
2) Upper cauline, leaves 3-5(-8) mm wide, ± narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate.
Habitat:-ln maritime sand or sometimes in dry, sandy habitats and on loamy road
embankments some distance inland, up to 600 m.
Distribution:- Greece and Crete eastwards, including Cyprus. Widespread and
common on Crete.
.
Flowering time:- End of Mar. to early June, occasionally later.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
