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Echium wildpretii
Also called Tower of jewels, Red tajinaste, Pink Echium, Red Mount Teide Bugloss
Red bugloss is a Canary Islands biennial that forms a dense leaf rosette in its first year, then sends up a tall spike of red flowers in its second year before dying. Full sun, well-drained dry soil and frost protection in cold areas are the keys to growing it.
Echium wildpretii is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae. It is an herbaceous biennial plant that grows up to 3 m (10 ft) in height. The species is endemic to the Canary Islands, and is found mainly in the national park surrounding Mount Teide in Tenerife. A similar species, Echium perezii, occurs at high altitudes on the island of La Palma. Other common names are tower of jewels, red bugloss, Tenerife bugloss, Mount Teide bugloss or red tajinaste.
The plant grows in the subalpine zone of the ravines of Mount Teide, a volcano on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. It requires a lot of sun and is found in arid and dry conditions, but it tolerates frost down to −5 °C (23 °F). As a sub-alpine endemic plant with a narrow climatic niche and small distribution, the species is likely to be negatively impacted by climate change.
This plant can be found as a garden ornamental but is intolerant of low temperatures, thus some winter protection is required in frost-prone areas. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. As with most buglosses, it is valued by bee-keepers for its high nectar content.
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 · Viper's bugloss
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Echium wildpretii 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.
