Echium vulgare
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Echium vulgare, known as viper's bugloss and blueweed,<ref name=ROM>Dickinson, T.; Metsger, D.; Bull, J.; & Dickinson, R. (2004) ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario. Toronto:Royal Ontario Museum, p. 203.</ref> is a species of flowering plant in the borage family Boraginaceae. It is native to most of Europe and western and central Asia<ref name=flora>Flora Europaea: Echium vulgare</ref><ref name=grin>Template:GRIN</ref> and it occurs as an introduced species in north-eastern North America, south-western South America and the South and North Island of New Zealand.<ref name=ROM/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> If eaten, the plant is toxic to horses and cattle through the accumulation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the liver.<ref name="GPP">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Klemow2002">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The plant root was used in ancient times as a treatment for snake or viper bites.<ref name="MissBot">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to the Doctrine of signatures, plants were thought to have traits (in this case a speckled stem reminiscent of snake skin, and flowers like an open viper's mouth) that mirror the ailment they treat.<ref name="ScienceMus2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Description
It is a biennial or monocarpic perennial plant growing to Template:Convert tall, with rough, hairy, oblanceolate leaves.<ref name="Graves">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The stems, which are red-flecked, resemble snake's skin and even the fruits are shaped like adders' heads.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The flowers start pink and turn vivid blue, and are Template:Convert in a branched spike, with all the stamens protruding. The pollen is blue<ref name="Hodges">Template:Cite book</ref> but the filaments of the stamens remain red, contrasting against the blue flowers. It flowers between May and September in the Northern Hemisphere. The Latin specific epithet vulgare means common.<ref name="MissBot" />
Distribution
It is native to Europe and temperate Asia. It has been introduced to Chile,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> New Zealand<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and North America, where it is naturalised in parts of the continent including Ontario and northern Michigan,<ref name=grin/> being listed as an invasive species in Washington.<ref name="atlas">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is found in dry, calcareous grassland and heaths, bare and waste places, along railways and roadsides and on coastal cliffs, sand dunes and shingle.<ref name=fitter>Fitter, R. & A. (1974). The Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe. Collins.</ref>
Cultivation
E. vulgare is cultivated as an ornamental plant, and numerous cultivars have been developed. The cultivar 'Blue Bedder' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.<ref name = RHSPF>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Gallery
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Being pollinated by skipper butterflies
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Illustration
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Closeup of flower
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Colonizing the banks of a Montreal city highway
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Extensive occurrence near Waldems-Wüstems in the Taunus
