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Echiums in Canary Islands

Medit-persons,

Just to add a short length to the Echium thread: I was really impressed
by Echium acanthocarpum in the Canary Island of La Gomera back in
February this year. Rather than having a single basal rosette that
elongates into a tall spire, then dies, it's a woody shrub up to about 6
feet tall, with rosettes at the tips of its branches. The flower spikes
are very showy, a sort or deep sky-blue, and each about 8 inches to a
foot long. It has the advantage of staying alive once it's flowered. Does
anyone grow it?

There were other species on La Gomera, but less showy. Echium aculeatum
is a low shrublet with prickly leaves, as the name suggests, and dingy,
small whitish flowers. Echium triste, the "sad bugloss", is also quite
appropriately named, as it's a rather squinny individual with smallish,
pinkish flowers. There are a couple of other not desperately exciting
species, the names of which I forget, but none of the monocarpic species
(dying after -- you hope! -- setting seed) that are found on some of the
other islands, e.g. Tenerife and La Palma.

Nick.

Nick Turland
Flora of China Project, Missouri Botanical Garden, 
P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299, U.S.A.
Email: nturland@lehmann.mobot.org
Tel.: (314) 577-0269 (direct line, voice mail)
Fax: (314) 577-9438 (Flora of China fax)
MBG Web Site: http://www.mobot.org
Flora of China Web: http://flora.harvard.edu/china/
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