The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Echium candicans
Pride of Madeira is a large, shrub-like perennial from Madeira with velvety leaves and dense spikes of blue or purple flowers. It is grown as a drought-tolerant ornamental, and it needs well-drained soil and full sun.
Echium candicans, the Pride of Madeira, is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae, and genus Echium, native to the island of Madeira. It is a large herbaceous perennial subshrub, growing to 1.5–2.5 m (4 ft 11 in – 8 ft 2 in).
In the first year after germination, the plant produces a broad rosette of leaves. In the second and subsequent years, more or less woody flowering stalks are produced clothed in rough leaves. The Latin specific epithet candicans means "shining white", referring to one colour form of this species.
E. candicans is cultivated in the horticulture trade and widely available throughout the world as an ornamental plant for traditional and drought-tolerant, water-conserving gardens. It is particularly suitable for coastal planting. With a temperature requirement of no less than 5–7 °C (41–45 °F), it needs some winter protection in frost-prone areas. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
In California, it is considered an invasive species. It is removed from native plant communities as part of habitat restoration efforts in coastal parks such as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In New Zealand, it is a common garden escapee onto roadside verges and shingle banks throughout the drier parts of both the North and the South Islands. In the state of Victoria, Australia, it is considered to be a high weed risk and an alert has been posted by the Department of Primary Industries.
The species is autochthonous only to Madeira and is absent from the other islands in the archipelago. It grows relatively frequently there at an altitude of about 800 to 1,200 meters (2,600 to 3,900 ft) in the central part of the island, at the upper end of the altitude range of the laurel forest and in open, heather-like vegetation.
Echium aculeatum · Echium amoenum · Sand Bugloss · Echium brevirame · Cretan viper's bugloss · Judean Viper's Bugloss · Pininana · Purple Viper's-bugloss · Common viper's bugloss · Red bugloss · Viper's bugloss
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Echium candicans 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
