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 pininana
Also called Giant Viper's Bugloss, Pine Echium, Giant Bugloss, Tower Of Jewels, Tree Echium
Echium pininana is a tall, branching biennial or short-lived subshrub from La Palma in the Canary Islands, grown for its towering spikes of blue flowers. It needs full sun, shelter from wind, and a free-draining site, and it self-seeds freely.
Echium pininana, commonly known as the tree echium, pine echium, giant viper's-bugloss, or tower of jewels, is a species of flowering plant in the borage family Boraginaceae. It is endemic to the Canary Islands, where it is restricted to the island of La Palma. Echium pininana is an endangered species, and is listed in Appendix I to, and is therefore protected under, the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. The specific epithet pininana is Latin for "small pine", though E. pininana is neither closely related to the pine, nor does it resemble that plant.
Echium pininana is cultivated as a garden ornamental, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. It is used as a bedding plant or planted in borders, and grows best in full sun. It is recommended for the southern maritime counties of England, the Channel Islands and the Scilly Isles. There are, however, reports of successful cultivation in the English Midlands and Yorkshire, albeit in favourable locations. Specimens are also grown in Dublin gardens at Howth and in the Irish National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin. The plant also grows readily in North Wales where it seeds very widely. Although E. pininana is half-hardy in Britain and Ireland, it will self-seed to form clusters of plants, and it is suggested that by natural selection a hardier variety will emerge. The plant is most vulnerable to frosts in its first year. Because of its large leaves when partly grown, it is also very susceptible to wind damage. Hence a sheltered garden position is essential. Echium pininana 'Alba' is a cultivar with white flowers.
Echium pininana is endemic to the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, where it grows in laurel forests. It is endangered due to habitat loss caused by agriculture. Outside La Palma, Echium pininana has been introduced to France, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand (both North and South Island), and the United States (north and central coast of California). It is also in ex situ conservation; in fact, the ex situ conservation population is greater than the wild population. It is conserved in botanical gardens such as Kew Gardens in London, where it has naturalised.
Echium aculeatum · Echium amoenum · Sand Bugloss · Echium brevirame · Pride of Madeira · Cretan viper's bugloss · Judean Viper's Bugloss · Purple Viper's-bugloss · Common viper's bugloss · Red bugloss · Viper's bugloss
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Echium pininana 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.
