Paterson’s Curse

Echium plantagineum

Alternative Name(s): Salvation Jane

Family: Boraginaceae.

Form: Herb

Origin: Native of the Mediterranean region across to Portugal.

Flowers/Seedhead: To 3 cm long. Flowers all year but mainly late winter to early summer.

Description: Erect annual herb to 60 (rarely to 150) cm high. Stems one to several. Stems and leaves hairy with coarse hairs and sometimes shorter soft hairs. Leaves oval to lanceolate; basal leaves, in a rosette, to 20 (rarely to 30) cm long, with a short stalk; stem leaves reducing in size towards flowers.

Distinguishing features: Distinguished by leaves with spreading hairs having an enlarged base; flowers in caterpillar-like curved spikes; funnel-shaped flowers, usually purple but also blue or pink, less often white, unevenly lobed; stamens with filaments much longer than anthers, 2 stamens longer than the others and projecting past the flower tube; fruit consisting of 4 tuberculate three-sided nutlets (although some may not develop).

Dispersal: Spread by seed. Long distance spread often via fodder.

Confused With: Vipers Bugloss, Echium vulgare, which has 4 stamens projecting past flower tube (as opposed to 2 in Paterson’s Curse).