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Scientific Name
Synonyms
Family
Common Names
Origin
Cultivation
Naturalised Distribution
Habitat
Habit
Distinguishing Features
Seedling
Stems and Leaves
Flowers and Fruit
Reproduction and Dispersal
Environmental Impact
Other Impacts
Legislation
Management
Similar Species
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Click on images to enlarge

infestation (Photo: Trevor James)

habit (Photo: Trevor James)

habit (Photo: Jackie Miles and Max Campbell)

lower leaves (Photo: Trevor James)

upper leaves (Photo: Jackie Miles and Max Campbell)

close-up of stem and immature fruit (Photo: Trevor James)

flower clusters (Photo: Trevor James)

older flower clusters (Photo: Trevor James)

flowers (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of flower showing its four longer stamens and one shorter stamen (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)

Echium vulgare

Scientific Name

Echium vulgare L.

Synonyms

Echium violaceum L. (misapplied)

Family

Boraginaceae

Common Names

blue devil, blue echium, blue thistle, blue weed, blueweed, common viper's bugloss, common vipersbugloss, viper's bugloss

Origin

This species is native to Europe (i.e. Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, UK, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, western Russia, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, France, Portugal and Spain), western Asia (i.e. Cyprus, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and western China.

Cultivation

May have been cultivated as a garden ornamental in the 1800's, but is no longer deliberately cultivated in Australia.

Naturalised Distribution

The distribution of this species is largely confined to south-eastern Australia. It is naturalised in many parts of New South Wales (mostly in the sub-coastal districts of central and southern New South Wales) and Victoria, in south-eastern South Australia, in the ACT and in Tasmania.

Habitat

Mainly a weed of pastures, roadsides, waterways, gardens, disturbed sites and waste areas in the temperate regions of Australia.

Habit

An upright (i.e. erect) and relatively long-lived (i.e. biennial or perennial) herbaceous plant usually growing 30-60 cm tall, but occasionally reaching up to 1.2 m in height. It forms a basal rosette of leaves during the early stages of growth.

Distinguishing Features

Seedling

Its two seed leaves (i.e. cotyledons) are rounded or oval (i.e. elliptic) in shape with rounded tips (i.e. obtuse apices). They are borne on short stalks (i.e. petioles) and are somewhat hairy (i.e. pubescent). The first true leaves are oval (i.e. elliptic) in shape with pointed tips (i.e. acute apices) and a pimply upper surface. They are covered in long hairs and have a prominent central vein (i.e. midrib).

Stems and Leaves

The upright (i.e. erect) and usually unbranched stems arise from a basal rosette of leaves. These stems are green in colour and covered in stiff hairs or bristles (i.e. they are hispid).

The rosette leaves are relatively large (1-15 cm long and up to 5 cm wide) and elongated (i.e. oblanceolate or linear) in shape. They are stalkless (i.e. sessile) or shortly stalked (i.e. petiolate), have entire margins, and usually have distinctly pimply upper surfaces. Stem (i.e. cauline) leaves are smaller, alternately arranged, stalkless (i.e. sessile) and sometimes even stem-clasping. All leaves are hairy (i.e. pubescent) on both surfaces.

Flowers and Fruit

The flowers (12-20 mm long) are blue in colour and tubular in shape. They are densely crowded along one side of a short curved or coiled stem (i.e. a boragoid inflorescence). These flowers have five petals that are fused together for most of their length (i.e. into a corolla tube) and five elongated (i.e. linear-lanceolate) sepals (5-6 mm long). They also and five stamens, four of which are significantly longer than the other, and extend beyond the flower tube (i.e. corolla tube). Flowering occurs mostly during spring and summer.

The fruit is a cluster of four 'seeds' (i.e. nutlets or mericarps) that are surrounded by five bristly bracts (i.e. the persistent sepals). The 'seeds' (2-3 mm long) are greyish-brown in colour woody, three-angled, and roughly textured (i.e. strongly wrinkled and pitted).

Reproduction and Dispersal

This species reproduces by seed. These seeds are dispersed by water, animals, wind and in dumped garden waste.

Environmental Impact

Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) is regarded as an environmental weed in the ACT, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. It is very similar to Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum), but is less widespread and less common. However, it invades the same sorts of natural habitats (i.e. grasslands, open woodlands and heathlands) and casues the same impacts (i.e. it can form very dense stands that compete vigorously with native groundcover plants and impede the regeneration of overstorey vegetation).

Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) invades conservation areas (e.g. Flagstaff Memorial Nature Reserve in Victoria and Mount Dowling Nature Reserve in southern New South Wales) and is among the weed species growing in habitats occupied by the endangered Tuggeranong lignum (Muehlenbeckia tuggeranong) in the ACT. It is also a common weed of endangered natural temperate grasslands on the southern tablelands of New South Wales and the ACT. In these grassland communities this and other weed species may be replacing or out-competing annual natives and could be affecting native species diversity.

Other Impacts

This species is a weed of crops and pastures in the temperate regions of Australia. It can sometimes also be poisonous to livestock.

Legislation

This species is declared under legislation in the following states and territories:

Management

For information on the management of this species see the following resources:

Similar Species

Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) is very similar to Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum) and relatively similar to Italian bugloss (Echium italicum). These species can be differentiated by the following differences:

Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) is also somewhat similar to the heliotropes (Heliotropium spp.) and the yellow burrweeds (Amsinckia spp.). However, all of these species can easily be distinguished from Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum) by their smaller flowers (less than 10 mm long and 3-6 mm across) which are often also white or yellow in colour.