Echium

Echium
Echium vulgare
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Boraginales
Family: Boraginaceae
Subfamily: Boraginoideae
Genus: Echium
Tourn. ex L. (1753)
Type species
Echium vulgare
Species[1]

68; see text

Synonyms[1]
  • Argyrexias Raf. (1838)
  • Echion St.-Lag. (1880), orth. var.
  • Isoplesion Raf. (1838)
  • Larephes Raf. (1838)
Echium auberianum
Echium candicans ('Pride of Madeira')
Echium judaeum
Echium horridum
Echium rauwolfii
Flowers of Echium hierrense, a species native to El Hierro.
Echium angustifolium in Cyprus

Echium /ˈɛkiəm/[2] is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that contains about 70 species and several subspecies.

Species of Echium are native to North Africa, mainland Europe to Central Asia, and the Macaronesian islands where the genus reaches its maximum diversity. Twenty-nine species of Echium are endemic to the Canary, Madeira, and Cape Verde archipelagos.[3] The continental species are herbaceous, whereas many of the endemic species of the Macaronesian islands are woody perennial shrubs.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Echium Tourn. ex L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  2. ^ Sunset Western Garden Book. Sunset Books. 1995. pp. 606–607. ISBN 9780376038500.
  3. ^ da Costa, Ricardo Pires (2019). The pollinator community of the Madeiran endemic Echium candicans: individual-based network metrics, relation with plant traits, and pollinator behaviour (PDF) (Master's thesis). University of Lisbon.
  4. ^ Böhle, Uta-Regina; Hilger, Hartmut H.; Martin, William F. (October 1996). "Island colonization and evolution of the insular woody habit in Echium L. (Boraginaceae)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 93 (21): 11740–11745. Bibcode:1996PNAS...9311740B. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.21.11740. PMC 38128. PMID 8876207.