Echium

Viper's bugloss ( Echium vulgare)

The snake heads ( Echium ), also known as snake heads, are a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae of ( Boraginaceae ). The genus includes about 65 species. The genus name is derived from the striking pencils that are split at the end like snake tongues. In Central Europe is most commonly seen the blue flowering ordinary bugloss ( Echium vulgare).

  • 2.1 Excluded species

Description

Vegetative characteristics

Mediterranean and Central European Echium species are one-to two -year or perennial herbaceous plants, reaching heights of growth of up to 1 meter depending on the type. In Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands and the Canary Islands also many woody shrub -like species occur. Aboveground plant parts are usually hairy bristly. The change-constant leaves have a simple leaf blade.

Generative features

The terminal inflorescences are winding with bracts. The flowers are usually pedunculated fünfzählig with double perianth and unlike the flowers of most other Boraginaceae weakly zygomorphic. The five sepals fused at their base a little larger to fruit maturity and then tilt together. The five blue, purple, to pink petals are fused Roehrig or bell-shaped, usually with a short corolla tube and corolla lobes of unequal size. The unequal stamens have long, thin filaments and relatively small, oblong anthers. Two carpels are fused to a vierfächerigen superior ovaries. The thin stylus is biramose top each with a small, capitate stigma.

The Klaus fruit decays into four fruits that are usually brown, straight, ovate to narrowly ovate, tuberculate or smooth.

Species, subspecies and their distribution

Most of the approximately 65 Echium species occur in Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. 28 species are endemic to Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde.

  • Echium albicans Lag & Rodr. : Echium albicans subsp. albicans
  • Echium albicans subsp. fruticescens ( Coincy ) Valdés
  • Echium angustifolium subsp. angustifolium
  • Echium angustifolium subsp. elongatum Klotz
  • Echium angustifolium subsp. expansum ( Hausskn. ) Klotz
  • Echium angustifolium subsp. sericeum ( Vahl ) Klotz
  • Echium angustifolium subsp. tunetanum Klotz
  • Echium creticum subsp. creticum
  • Echium creticum subsp. coincyanum ( Lacaita ) R.Fernandes ( inklusive. subsp. algarbiense R.Fernandes )
  • Echium creticum subsp. sauvagei ( R.Fernandes ) Valdés
  • Echium humile subsp. humile
  • Echium italicum subsp. italicum
  • Echium rosulatum subsp. rosulatum
  • Echium rosulatum subsp. davaei Rouy
  • Echium sabulicola subsp. sabulicola
  • Echium sabulicola subsp. decipiens ( Pomel ) Klotz
  • Echium sabulicola subsp. rifeum (Pau) Valdés
  • Echium tenue subsp. dumosum ( Coincy ) Klotz
  • Echium tenue subsp. tenue
  • Echium velutinum subsp. velutinum
  • Echium velutinum subsp. versicolor ( H.Lindb. fil. ) Sauvage & Vindt
  • Echium velutinum subsp. vilmorinianum ( Sauvage & Vindt ) Klotz
  • Madeira (Echium candicans L. f )
  • Echium nervosum Dryand.
  • Echium acanthocarpum Svent.
  • Echium aculeatum Poir.
  • Echium auberianum Webb & Berthel.
  • Echium bethencourtii Santos
  • Echium bonnetii Coincy
  • Echium brevirame Sprague & Hutch.
  • Echium callithyrsum Berthel.
  • Echium decaisnei Webb & Berthel. : Echium decaisnei subsp. decaisnei
  • Echium decaisnei subsp. purpuriense Bramwell ( syn. E. famarae Lem & Holzapfel )
  • Echium onosmifolium subsp. onosmifolium
  • Echium onosmifolium subsp. spectabile Kunk.
  • Echium strictum subsp. strictum
  • Echium strictum subsp. exasperatum ( Webb ex Coincy ) Bramw.
  • Echium strictum subsp. gomerae ( Pit. ) Bramw.
  • Echium triste subsp. triste
  • Echium triste subsp. Nivariense ( Svent. ) Bramwell
  • Echium wildpretii subsp. wildpretii
  • Echium wildpretii subsp. trichosiphon ( Svent. ) Bramw.
  • Echium hypertropicum Webb
  • Echium stenosiphon Webb: Echium stenosiphon subsp. stenosiphon
  • Echium stenosiphon subsp. lindbergii ( Pettersson ) Bramwell

Excluded species

The following type is assigned in more recent works of a different genus:

  • Pontechium maculatum (L.) U. - R.Böhle & Hilger ( syn. Echium maculatum L., Echium russicum Gmel. )
Asterids List of islands of Cape Verde Ovary (botany) Echium gentianoides Echium pininana Digital Object Identifier JSTOR
253465
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