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Boraginaceae FAMILY

Echium plantagineum

Echium plantagineum

Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
0/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual/Biennial
Growth—

Grows best in an open, sunny position in moderately fertile, well-drained soils[1]. Rich soils promote lush leaf growth at the expense of flowering[1].

Propagation

Seed - sow late winter-May or August-late autumn in situ. Germination usually takes place within 2 - 3 weeks at 15°c. If the seed is in short supply then it can be sown in pots in a cold frame. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in the summer. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Echium+plantagineum>

Pollinators

Bees, Flies, Lepidoptera

References

  1. [1]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  2. [2]The National Non-Food Crops Centre Crop Database — http://www.nnfcc.co.uk/crops/pd.cfm ↩︎An excellent on-line information source, with information on over 100 species (as of 2006) of plants being investigated as bio-crops.