Echium
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Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
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Echium (from the Greek for a viper). Boraginaceae. Viper's Bugloss. Coarse, mostly rough herbs and shrubs, with spikes of blue, violet, red or white flowers, some of them grown in the open and others under glass. Plant usually scabrous, hispid or canescent: lvs. alternate: fls. in unilateral, scirpioid, forked or simple spikes, with either small or foliaceous bracts; calyx with 5 narrow lobes; corolla tubular-trumpet-shaped, the throat oblique and dilated and without appendages ; corolla-lobes 5, roundish and unequal, somewhat spreading or erect; stamens 5, inserted below middle of tube, unequal and exserted; ovary deeply 4-lobed; style filiform, 2-parted at top: fr. 4 nutlets. — Some 30—40 species, from the Canaries and Madeira (where they are specially important) to W. Asia. One species, E. vulgare, Linn., is a showy intro. biennial weed in fields and alone roadsides, with blue or rose-tinted fls. ; it is known as blue-weed and blue-devil. The shrubby species of Madeira and the Canaries are much confused, some of the names having been established on cult. material. This is particularly true of the forms passing as E. candicans and E. fastuosum, which are very unsatisfactorily determined (See Hooker, B.M. 6868). In those islands, the plants produce much forage and they persist from the goats in inaccessible places. (The portraits quoted below are cited under the names they bear.) In rich soil echiums grow coarse and scarcely flower, and the flowers are never as richly colored as when the plants are more or less starved. Biennials seed freely, and the seed is sown as soon as gathered. E. fastuosum is said to be the handsomest of the shrubby kinds, grows 2 to 4 feet high, has long, pale green leaves covered with soft white hairs, and flowers of a peculiarly brilliant deep blue. Echiums are eminently suited for dry places, and need good drainage. CH
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Cultivation
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Propagation
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Pests and diseases
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Species
Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
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E. Auberianum, Hort., not Webb & Berth.— E. Bourgeanum. — E. Bourgranum, Webb. Stout and strict, 8-11 ft., the St. covered with long-linear drooping lvs.: 3s. rose-colored, in a dense pyramidal spike. Mountains. Canaries. A striking plant. — E. callithyrsum. Webb. Woody or treelike, robust, hispid-hairy: lvs. strongly nerved: calyx-segms. very unequal: fls. pale red: floral lvs. exceeding the different cymes of the thyrse. Canaries. — E. formosum, Pers. (syn. Lobostemon). — E. Pininana, Webb. & Berth. Very large species, reaching 16 ft., with an abundance of stout spreading long-oblong lvs.— E. Wildpretii, Pears. A tall soft-hairy biennial, with simple erect st. 2-3 ft.: lvs. sessile, narrowly linear-lanceolate, hairy: fls. pale red with long-exserted filaments, in a large terminal thyrse: floral lvs. much exceeding the different cymes. Canaries. CH
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Gallery
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963