Spikes of bristly blue funnels that open from pink buds, with red stamens sticking out like snakes' tongues, on dry chalk and dunes
Viper's bugloss - Echium vulgare.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Viper's bugloss
Native · biennial, flowers May to September · chalk grassland, dunes, shingle, cliffs
Echium vulgare — Boraginaceae
Viper's bugloss is a bristly, spiky biennial whose flower spikes open from pink buds to a vivid blue, with red stamens poking out like snakes' tongues. It is a superb plant for bumblebees and other insects, and grows on chalk, dunes, shingle and dry banks, especially in the south and east.
How to spot them
- ▸Tall, upright spikes of funnel-shaped flowers that are pink in bud and bright blue when open
- ▸Long red stamens protruding from each flower
- ▸Rough, bristly stems and leaves, the stems spotted with red-brown
- ▸Narrow, tongue-shaped leaves; a rosette in the first year
- ▸Look-alikes: green alkanet and borages have flatter five-lobed flowers; purple viper's-bugloss (Echium plantagineum) is coastal in the south-west with larger, more purple flowers
How to know it
Its name is said to come from spotted stems like a snake's skin, or seeds resembling a snake's head; 'bugloss' is Greek for ox-tongue
Viper's bugloss - the 'doctrine of signatures' in the herbals.
Nectar from this rough-leaved biennial feeds buff-tailed and red-tailed bumblebees, large skipper and painted lady butterflies, honeybees and red mason bees
Viper's bugloss - Wildlife Trusts.
A plant of the borage family that grows in stony, sandy or chalky places; a rosette of bristly leaves forms in year one, the flowering spike in year two
Viper's bugloss - Boraginaceae.
Its flowers are pink in bud and change to blue as they open, a colour change produced as the flower matures
Viper's bugloss.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Boraginaceae, alongside borage, comfrey, forget-me-nots and lungwort
- •Genus name Echium is from the Greek for viper (echis); the plant was once used against snakebite on the strength of the doctrine of signatures
- •Wildlife Trusts give the flowering period as May to September and the height as up to 80 cm
- •Wildlife Trusts list buff-tailed and red-tailed bumblebees, honeybees, red mason bees, large skipper and painted lady among its visitors
- •Bugloss comes from the Greek bous + glossa, 'ox tongue', referring to the rough tongue-shaped leaves
- •Common on chalk and sandy soils, dunes and cliffs, and especially in the south and east
- •Bristly hairs can irritate the skin
- •Purple viper's-bugloss (Echium plantagineum) is a scarcer, mostly coastal relative in south-west England and the Channel Islands
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Viper's-bugloss