NameThatPlant.net: Echium vulgare

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Lamiids: Boraginales? order assignment uncertain

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Echium vulgare FAMILY Boraginaceae Go to FSUS key

Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.

Check out EDDMapS.org to see where this has been reported.

Read more about Viper's Bugloss at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Echium vulgare FAMILY Boraginaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)

Echium vulgare

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 161-04-001:

Echium vulgare FAMILY Boraginaceae

COMMON NAME:
Viper's-bugloss, Blueweed

To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Echium vulgare, Viper's-bugloss, Blueweed

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_ecvu_001_lvd

JK Marlow jkm0507e_34

July Greenbrier County WV

Roadside

Pronounced "bew-gloss" not "bug-loss," referring to an ox's tongue, per Weakley's Flora.

JK Marlow jkm0507e_34b

July Greenbrier County WV

Roadside

Corolla conspicuously irregular, lobes rounded and spreading, the throat open, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).

JK Marlow jkm0507f_01

July Greenbrier County WV

Roadside

Cauline lvs oblong to linear-lanceolate, sessile, progressively smaller upward, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Echium vulgare FAMILY Boraginaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Echium vulgare FAMILY Boraginaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Echium vulgare

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 161-04-001:
Echium vulgare FAMILY Boraginaceae

2008

Forb
Biennial

Habitat: Roadsides, dry pastures, disturbed areas, per Weakley's Flora

Non-native: Mediterranean Europe

Uncommon in NC Mountains, rare elsewhere in Carolinas (waifs in GA)

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

LEAVES:
Simple
Basal & alternate

FLOWER:
Summer/Fall
Bright blue-violet/ White or pink with age
Bilaterally symmetrical
5-parted calyx
5-lobed funnelform corolla
Superior ovary
Bisexual

FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Schizocarp of specialized mericarps (nutlets)

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!

"We treasure pictures and sculpture. We regard Attic temples and Roman triumphal arches and Gothic cathedrals as of priceless value. But we are, as a whole, still in that low state of civilization where we do not understand that it is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird. Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals — not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements." — Theodore Roosevelt

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