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Echium
Also called Viper's Buglosses
Echium is a genus of about 70 species in the borage family, including herbaceous plants from mainland Europe and Asia and woody shrubs from the Macaronesian islands. Many species are grown as ornamental garden plants, and the general care notes below apply to commonly grown members such as Echium candicans and Echium vulgare.
Echium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that contains about 70 species and several subspecies.
Species of Echium are native to North Africa, mainland Europe to Central Asia, and the Macaronesian islands where the genus reaches its maximum diversity. Twenty-nine species of Echium are endemic to the Canary, Madeira, and Cape Verde archipelagos. The continental species are herbaceous, whereas many of the endemic species of the Macaronesian islands are woody perennial shrubs.
Many species are used as ornamental and garden plants and may be found in suitable climates throughout the world. In Crete, Echium italicum is called pateroi (πάτεροι) or voidoglosses (βοϊδόγλωσσες) and its tender shoots are eaten boiled or steamed.
Echium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora onosmella and orange swift.
Echium aculeatum · Echium amoenum · Sand Bugloss · Echium brevirame · Pride of Madeira · Cretan viper's bugloss · Judean Viper's Bugloss · Pininana · Purple Viper's-bugloss · Common viper's bugloss · Red bugloss
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Echium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
