Echium vulgare L., Boraginaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  yes

Common name(s): [more details]

Chinese: lan ji

English: blue devil, blue echium, blue thistle, blueweed, common echium, common viper's bugloss, viper's bugloss

Spanish: hierba azul, ortiguilla, viborera

Habit:  herb

Description:  "Herbs biennial. Stems usually erect, to 1 m, usually much branched, spreading hirsute, densely short appressed pubescent. Basal and lower stem leaves linear-lanceolate, ca. 12 x 1.4 cm, long strigose, base attenuate; upper stem leaves sessile, lanceolate, smaller. Inflorescences long, narrow, many flowered; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 4-15 mm. Flowers somewhat crowded. Calyx 5-parted to base, hirsute outside; lobes lanceolate-linear, ca. 6 mm, to 1 cm in fruit. Corolla blue-purple, oblique-campanulate, ca. 1.2 cm, short appressed pubescent outside; lobes unequal, upper lobe larger. Filaments 1-1.2 cm; anthers oblong, ca. 0.5 mm. Style ca. 1.4 cm; stigma terminal. Nutlets ovoid, ca. 2.5 mm, tuberculate"  (Flora of China online).

Description from Flora of New Zealand.

Habitat/ecology:  In New Zealand, "Roadsides, open waste and disturbed land, stony riverbeds.  Common throughout, particularly in inland drier parts of the South Island"  (Webb et al., 1988; p. 375).  In China (northern Xinjiang):  "Rocky places"  (Flora of China online).  In Australia, "naturalized in disturbed places or pastoral land"  (NSW PlantNET).  "In Chile this species grows in the following environmental conditions:  Low altitude, interior valleys; coastal mountains, 500 - 2000 m; coastal areas, 0-500 m.  Somewhat dry areas where the drought may last 3-5 months, precipitations of 400-800 mm. are concentrated in winter; dry, arid areas, with long drought periods of 6-10 months, precipitations of 100 mm-300 mm. are concentrated in winter. Fully exposed to the sun, level areas or slopes facing north; some shadow, some protection against direct sunlight, some shadow from vegetation, filtering about 20-40% of light  (Chileflora).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Europe, Asia; naturalized elsewhere (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Chile (offshore islands) Juan Fernández Islands	Isla Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island)	introduced invasive	Atkinson, Rachel/Sawyer, John (2011)
Chile (offshore islands) Juan Fernández Islands	Isla Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island)	introduced invasive cultivated	Danton, Philippe/Perrier, Christophe/Martinez Reyes, Guido (2006) (pp. 482, 528, 553) Voucher cited: Danton D(971)837. "Esta planta común en los lugares modificados por el hombre fue colectada sólo una vez en RC".

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	New South Wales	introduced invasive	National Herbarium of New South Wales (2011)
Canada Province of British Columbia	Canada (British Columbia)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)
Chile (continental) Chile	Chile (Republic of)	introduced invasive	Belov, Michail (2011)
China China	China (People's Republic of)	native	Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong (2011) Northern Xinjiang
Japan Japan	Japan (country)	introduced	Mito, Toshikazu/Uesugi, Tetsuro (2004) (p. 188)
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive	Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. (1988) (p. 375)
United States (west coast) United States (west coast states)	USA (Oregon)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)
United States (west coast) United States (west coast states)	USA (Washington)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)

Also reported from
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
United States (continental except west coast) United States (other states)	United States (other states)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)

Additional information:
Ecology and Management of Blueweed (Echium vulgare L.) from USDA-NRCS.
Weed identification guide from Virginia Tech.
Fact sheet from Montana State University Extension.
Impact assessment from Victoria, Australia
Photos and other information from Chileflora.

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

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

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

References:

Atkinson, Rachel/Sawyer, John. 2011. Naturalized species in the Juan Fernández Archipelago, Chile. Unpublished spreadsheet.

Belov, Michail. 2011. Chileflora (online resource).

Danton, Philippe/Perrier, Christophe/Martinez Reyes, Guido. 2006. Nouveau catalogue de la flore vaculaire de l'archipel Juan Fernández (Chile) [Nuevo catálogo de la flora vacular del Archipélago Juan Fernández (Chile)]. Acta Bot. Gallica 153(4):399-587.

Missouri Botanical Garden. 2011. TROPICOS. Online searchable database.

Mito, Toshikazu/Uesugi, Tetsuro. 2004. Invasive alien species in Japan: the status quo and the new regulation for prevention of their adverse effects. Global Environmental Research 8(2)/2004: 171-191.

National Herbarium of New South Wales. 2011. PlantNet: New South Wales Flora online. The Plant Information Network System of the Botanic Gardens Trust Version 2.0. Online resource.

U. S. Government. 2011. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (on-line resource).

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

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2011. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

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.

Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong. 2011. Flora of China (online resource).