Echium Pininana

Echium pininana

Photographed in the grounds of King’s College, Cambridge. From memory they were about six feet tall (1.83m)

See the details below that says the flowers can grow up to 4m long. (13 feet)!

Interesting plants, yes?

From the Royal Horticultural Society

Other common names
giant viper’s bugloss
tower of jewels

Synonyms
Echium pinnifolium

Family
Boraginaceae

Genus
Echium can be annuals, biennials, evergreen perennials or shrubs, with simple, coarsely hairy leaves and funnel-shaped flowers borne in panicles or dense spikes in summer

Details
Echium pininana is a rosette-forming biennial or short-lived perennial with lance-shaped, roughly silver-hairy leaves to 7cm long. Each rosette produces a flower panicle up to 4m long of funnel-shaped blue flowers with large bracts in mid and late summer

Plant range
Canary Islands

Hat Tip

Hat tip to Nicole Gipps of ThatSuperGirl for naming the plant.

4 Comments

  1. What peculiar creatures – cousins of triffids, I’m sure! I love the way the photograph captures so many different textures.

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    1. Thanks 🙂

      Someone I know thought the same – triffids!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Lol, Hogwart’s Thinking Cap! 🙂

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  3. Definitely Harry Potterish!

    They would appear to be tropical, but they are happy growing there!

    I have some bugloss in my garden, but they are quite different.

    Like

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