342 BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY) 
VIPER'S BUGLOSS 
Echium vulgare, L. 
Other English names: Blueweed, Blue Devil, Blue Thistle, Viper’s 
Herb, Snake Flower. 
Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: August to November. 
Range: New Brunswick to Ontario and Nebraska, southward to 
Georgia. 
Habitat: Fields, meadows, pastures, waste places. 
In Australia this weed is known as “Paterson’s Curse,” from 
the settler who unwittingly introduced it, and it is “proclaimed” 
Fig. 237. — Viper’s 
Bugloss (Echium vulgare). 
Xi 
by the state, to the end that all men’s 
hands may be turned against it. (Fig. 237.) 
First-year leaves tufted, linear oblong to 
lance-shaped, three to six inches long, 
entire, bristly hairy on both sides, crown- 
ing a thick, dark taproot which bores into 
the soil often to the depth of more than 
a foot. Flowering stalks appear in the 
second season, one to two feet high, erect, 
slender, bristly, the bristles springing from 
fine, red tubercles which speck the stem; 
on the leaves these prominent specks are 
pale green; when near maturity the bristly 
hairs harden into prickles, which come away 
as readily as cactus spines, making the 
weed a most vicious thing to handle. 
Flower-spike compound, formed of many 
small, one-sided, curving spikelets springing 
from the upper axils; calyx five-toothed, 
bristly; corolla a half-inch or more long, 
irregular funnel-form, unequally five-lobed, 
pink in the bud, violet-blue when fully 
open, withering to a deep purple; the five 
stamens are unequal, the longer ones exserted and all have red 
anthers. Nutlets small, three-angled, wrinkled, of very long 
vitality, and too often an impurity among other seeds. 
