Viper's bugloss

Viper's bugloss
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Boraginales
Family:	Boraginaceae
Genus:	Echium
Species:	E. vulgare
Binomial name
Echium vulgare L.

Echium vulgare — known as viper's bugloss and blueweed — is a species of flowering plant in the borage family Boraginaceae. It is native to most of Europe, and western and central Asia and it occurs as an introduced species in north-eastern North America.

It is a biennial or monocarpic perennial plant growing to 30–80 cm (12–31 in) tall, with rough, hairy, oblanceolate leaves. The flowers start pink and turn vivid blue and are 15–20 mm (0.59–0.79 in) in a branched spike, with all the stamens protruding. The pollen is blue but the filaments of the stamens remain red, contrasting against the blue flowers. It flowers between May and September. It is found in dry calcareous grassland and heaths, bare and waste places, along railways and roadsides, and on coastal cliffs, sand dunes and shingle.

It is native to Europe and temperate Asia. It has been introduced to North America and is naturalised in parts of the continent, being listed as an invasive species in Washington state.

Viper's bugloss being pollinated by skipper butterflies

Illustration of Echium vulgare

Closeup of flower

Viper's bugloss colonizing the banks of Montreal city highway

White-tailed bumblebee on the blueweed

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Wikipedia