Ontario Weeds: Blueweed
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Related Links
Name: Blueweed, Echium vulgare
L., [EHIVU]
Other Names: Blue devil, Blue-thistle,
Viper's bugloss, vipérine, vipérine vulgaire, herbe
aux vipères
Family: Borage Family (Boraginacae)
General Description: Biennial, occasionally
annual or short-lived perennial, reproducing only by seed. It is distinguished
by its deep thick taproot, long narrow rosette leaves, erect stem
with short 1-side branches of bright blue flowers, unequally lobed
corolla with protruding stamens, its clusters of 4 hard, bony, rough
nutlets, and by being harshly rough-hairy throughout.
Photos and Pictures
Blueweed
Stems & Roots: First-year plant
producing a rosette of long, narrow, harshly hairy leaves and deeply
penetrating fleshy taproot; flowering stem produced in the second
year, or rarely in the first year and the plant acting as an annual;
stems erect 30 - 90 cm (12 - 36 in.) high, 1 to several from each
taproot, harshly hairy with a mixture of a few, scattered, long, stiff
hairs among dense short hair, the longer hair having swollen reddish
or blackish bases visible as small bumps on the stem surface; stem
leaves alternate (1 per node), similar to the basal leaves but smaller
and narrower, harshly hairy, most hair stiff with swollen bases.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers numerous
in 1-sided, short, arching branches near the top of the stem; petals
bright blue, forming an irregular corolla with the upper lobes longer
than the lower ones and 4 of the 5 stamens plus the hairy stigma protruding
from the corolla; seeds in the form of 4 hard, gray or brown, very
rough nutlets about 3 mm (1/8 in.) long. Flowers from June until autumn.
Habitat: Blueweed occurs throughout Ontario
in coarse sandy or gravelly soil in pastures, waste places and roadsides.
The bright blue flowers are attractive and provide significant pasture
for honeybees. When the plant matures, the stiff hair of stem, leaves,
and sepal becomes very sharp and hard and causes severe physical irritation
to tender skin.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
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