Viborera

Appearance

It is a perennial uni or multi-stemmed, setoso-hispid herb. Stems up to 35 cm, erect, simple, with double clothing of patent rigid setae with a pustulate base and short appressed and antrorse hairs. Leaves with double indument of patent setae with thickly pustulate base and short appressed hairs; those at the base up to 7 x 0.3 cm, very narrowly oblanceolate, gradually narrowing at the base; the stems up to 4 (-4.5) x 0.3 (-0.4) cm, linear or very narrowly oblanceolate. Spiciform inflorescence, more or less cylindrical, generally dense, with dense cymes up to 3.5 (-7) cm at fruiting. Bracts 4-7 (-8) x 0.7-1.5 (-2) mm, linear or linear-lanceolate, generally shorter than the calyx. Shortly pedicellate flowers. Calyx with lobes 5-8(-9) x 0.4-0.8 (-1) mm and linear at anthesis, slightly elongating and linear or linear-lanceolate at fruiting, with double indumentum of rigid setae and hairs scarce shorts. Corolla (8-) 10-15 (-16) mm, funnel-shaped, zygomorphic, with a barely marked tube, blue-violet or blue-purple with a whitish tube, with some long hairs on the nerves and short hairs more or less all over the surface. Androecium with (4-) 5 of the stamens exserted, with reddish and glabrous filaments. Nucules 1.5-2 (-2.4) x (1-) 1.2-1.4 mm, dense, irregular and shortly tuberculate, gray-yellow. 2n=16.1

Naming

Echium: generic name that derives from the Greek echium, which means viper, due to the triangular shape of the seeds that vaguely resemble the head of a viper.

humile: Latin epithet meaning "of low growth".

Distribution

It is found in southeastern Spain and NW Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). Arid and dry areas of SE Spain.

Habitat

It is found on thyme groves, rocky outcrops, roadsides, in basic soils: marl, gypsum and limestone; from 0-800 meters above sea level.