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Bristle-haired plant ID'd by Jorun as Echium angustifolium

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Joanna Savage

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Bristle-haired plant ID'd by Jorun as Echium angustifolium
« on: July 08, 2013, 03:04:30 PM »
After months of IT problems, then flat out in the garden, I belatedly ask for help. This leaf appeared in a basal rosette in March. I was interested in the bristly hairs which seem to end in a white crystalline base. I hadn't seen this plant on the olive terraces before. Then a fascinating flower stem emerged with dazzling red hairs all the way up the stem. And then the purple flowers. It is still flowering prolifically but the stem hairs have paled. Any suggestions welcome.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2013, 05:04:58 PM by Alisdair »
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JTh

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Re: Help with plant ID please
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2013, 03:37:46 PM »
Looks very much like the narrow-leaved bugloss, Echium angustifolium, which we also have a lot of in the wild and in the garden in spring, altough they are gone now, or one of the other similar buglosses
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Retired veterinary surgeon by training with a PhD in parasitology,  but worked as a virologist since 1992.
Member of the MGS  since 2004. Gardening in Oslo and to a limited extent in Halkidiki, Greece.

Joanna Savage

  • Sr. Member
Re: Bristle-haired plant ID'd by Jorun as Echium angustifolium
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2013, 07:50:45 AM »
Thanks for that ID JTh. It has been an interesting puzzle to try to guess what might be the evolutionary startegy behind those bristly hairs with either white bases in the first leaves or red on the flowering stem.
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David Bracey

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Re: Bristle-haired plant ID'd by Jorun as Echium angustifolium
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2013, 09:06:27 AM »
Its only a guess but it must be mimicking a pollinating insect.
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 I have gardened in sub-tropical Florida, maritime UK, continental Europe and the Mediterranean basin, France. Of the 4 I have found that the most difficult climate for gardening is the latter.
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