Echium candicans L. f., Boraginaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  Accept, score: -2 (Go to the risk assessment)

Other Latin names:  Echium fastuosum J. Jacq., nom. illeg.

Common name(s): [more details]

English: pride of Madeira, tower of jewels

Habit:  shrub

Description:  "Shrub 1-3 m.  Leaves persistent, 6-20 cm, narrowly elliptic, densely strigose.  Inflorescence 3-4 dm; branches many, spreading.  Flowers ± radial; calyx 3-5 mm; corolla 5-9 mm, blue to violet; stamens all exserted.  Fruit: nutlets rough, fine-tubercled" (Wilkin & Kelley, 1993; p. 378).

"Shrubby and branching, to 6 ft.; leaves lanceolate, white-hairy, distinctly veined; flowers white, or blue with white lines, nearly sessile, in a dense, long thyrse" (Bailey & Bailey, 1976; p. 416).

Habitat/ecology:  In California (US), "open, dry slopes and bluffs; less than 300 m" (Wilkin & Kelley, 1993; p. 378). In New Zealand, "coastal cliffs, steep, dry volcanic slopes" (Webb et al., 1988; p. 373).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Madeira, Canary Islands (Bailey & Bailey, 1976; p. 416).

Presence:

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive	Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. (1988) (p. 373)
United States (west coast) United States (west coast states)	USA (California)		Vander Velde, Nancy (year unknown)

Comments:  Reported as an invasive plant in California per Nancy Vander Velde, pers. com.

Additional information:
Additional online information about Echium candicans is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Echium candicans as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Echium candicans may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Bailey, L. H./Bailey, E. Z. 1976. Hortus third: A concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada. Macmillan, New York. 1290 pp.

Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson manual: higher plants of California. U. Cal. Press, Berkeley. 1400 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Vander Velde, Nancy. 0. Nancy Vander Velde, pers. com.

Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. 1988. Flora of New Zealand, Volume IV: Naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons. Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch. 1365 pp.