Viper's bugloss

A stem and flowers of Viper's bugloss with pink flower buds and blue, open, flowers.

Many years ago, I did a week-long 'Science and Practice of Nature Conservation' course, in Dorset (a county on the south coast of England); it was pretty much a taster course given the wide range of disciplines involved.  We learned a lot in a very short space of time, and quite apart from quadrat surveys and identifying flora from keys, my 'stay-with-me' memories from it include seeing and hearing my first nightjars, using a bat detector, seeing and hearing my first Dartford warbler, seeing my first eyebright, tormentil and sundews, and visiting the Isle of Portland. The latter would come to be more important to me some time afterwards - I decided to do a degree to further my conservation career, and became fascinated by Earth sciences (rather than life sciences) during my foundation year, and I have seen a lot of Portland Stone since then.  I've never lost my interest in plants, though.

We were just walking the short distance from the minibus to a quarry there when I saw this spike of the most amazing blue flowers.  I was told that it was Viper's bugloss, and it has been my favourite wildflower ever since.  It's a member of the Borage family, with the scientific name Echium vulgare.   The second part of its name is pronounced bew-gloss rather than bug-loss, by the way; it comes from the Greek for 'ox tongue,' after the rough texture of the leaves.  The 'viper' part of its name may come from either the markings on the stem or from the shape of the flowerheads - or of course from both. It's a plant of road verges, nutrient-poor grasslands, sand dunes, and unloved spaces in general.  You wouldn't actually want it growing in paddocks or meadows - it is toxic to horses and cattle.

Thanks to some rather nifty biochemistry, the intensely blue flowers develop their hue after budding pink.  Oh - and the pollen is blue as well!

Bumblebees love Viper's bugloss - I was taking photos of a swathe of it yesterday (I'd never seen so much of it in one place before!) and I was having to move my hands very slowly as I was moving in for macro photos. I was great to see such a variety of species of them at once. 

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