Echium plantaginum

Echium plantagineum, commonly called bugloss or purple flower, is a plant included in the genus Echium. It is an annual herb that can reach 70 cm in height. It develops abundantly in meadows in full sun and tolerates partial shade.

Plant in flower

Detail of the flower

Detail of the rosette

View of the plant in its habitat

Description

Annual or biennial. Herbaceous plant up to 70 cm tall, with branched stems.
The entire plant is densely covered with a coat of stiff hairs that give it a micro-rough touch.
The leaves are lanceolate, except for those on the basal rosette, which are oblong.
It forms an erect inflorescence. The flowers are of an intense blue-violet color with the petals welded along almost their entire length, they only have hairs on the nerves, a fact that marks the difference between Echium plantagineum and Echium sabulicola (smaller and hairier on the corolla of the flower).

It blooms in the northern hemisphere, depending on the region and its climate, from February to July.

Distribution and habitat

Flat areas all over Europe along roads and wastelands. In Spain widely spread throughout the territory.

This is also the quintessential invasive species and pest (comparable to the spread of rabbits) in most of southern Australia, where it infects once-productive native grasses. It was introduced in the early years of colonization from Europe by the Patterson family to beautify their garden, but before long it could see its unstoppable expansion through the previously productive surrounding pastures. Today the fight for its eradication continues with all possible means.

Active ingredients

Mucilage, cynogloxin, consolicin, nitrates, tannin.
This species contains, like all the others belonging to this genus, very small amounts of a quite toxic alkaloid called equiin, which is similar, in its mode of action, to the curare used by South American Indians to poison arrows. In fact, deaths of cattle have been described for having grazed in areas where this species thrived and having ingested it in large quantities.

Medicinal uses

The juice is used in cosmetics as an effective emollient for delicate and reddened skin.
Poultices of fresh flowers are used to cure boils and ingrown nails; using the flower tips, which are harvested in July.

The root provides a red dye for tissues.

Taxonomy

Echium plantagineum was described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and published in Mantissa Plantarum 2: 202. 1771.

Cytology

Chromosome number of Echium plantagineum (Fam. Boraginaceae) and infraspecific taxa: n=8

Etymology

Echium: generic name derived from the Greek echium, which means viper, due to the triangular shape of the seeds that vaguely resemble the head of a viper. This fact also explains why in the Middle Ages this plant was regarded as a protector against snakes and was used, by association, as a remedy against snake bites.

plantagineum: epithet that alludes to the leaf similarity with species of the genus Plantago.

Sinonimia

• Echium lycopsis auct. non L.
• Echium murale Hill
• Echium plantaginoid Roem.
• Echium sennenii Pau
• Echium violaceum L.
• Echium alonsoi Sennen " Mauritius
• Echium bonariense Poir.
• Echium creticum subsp. plantagineum (L.) Malag.
• Echium longistamineum Pourr. ex Lapeyr.
• Echium orientale Stephan
• Echium plantaginifolium L. ex Moris
• Echium pseudoviolaceum Schur
• Echium violaceum var. medium Kuntze

Vernacular name

• argamula, arguimula, hazelnuts, hairy bovine, suckers, sucker of vines, suckingmieles, horse of tire leaves, cordial flowers, mule leaf, ox tongue, cow tongue, tongues, tongues, tongues, lychariega, mule ear, polomina de Canarias, sonaja, viperrillo, vibolerillo, vibular