Viper's Bugloss, Echium vulgare
Boraginaceae or Borage Family
| Coarse, bristly hairy plant with tongue-like leaves and deep
blue flowers and pink buds. Flowers have 5 petals of
different sizes and the male parts protrude well outside the
flower. A weed of waste places, especially in limestone
regions, originating in southern Europe. Blooms in early
to mid-summer In Wildwood it prefers the disturbed habitats near the entrance. Occasionally grows on top of the weeping tufa. No other flower in Wildwood is so intensely blue. Great lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) is similar, but not so intense. That species also has the lower part of the flower modified into an inflated tube, two petals at the top of the flower and three below, and male parts that do not extend well out of the flower. It also blooms in late summer. |
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