*Echium plantagineum

Family Boraginaceae

Paterson’s Curse, Salvation Jane

Short lived perennial herb to 1.5 m high, usually multistemmed, with short stout tap root and numerous laterals, overwinters as rosettes.

Flowers: Purple, pink or white, September – April. Probably honey bee pollinated.

Fruit: Fruit of 4 mericarps, mature December – January.

Seed: Plants produce large amounts of seed, Locally dispersed. Soil stored seedbank.

Gallery images: seed, seedling, rootstock, resprout

Ecology

• Native of Europe.
• Weed of woodland, roadsides and pasture habitats.
• Occasional weed in grasslands at the Australian Botanic Garden.
• Seeds reportedly eaten by birds, e.g. Richard’s Pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae.
• Roots reportedly eaten by Sulphur-crested Cockatoos Cacatua galerita.

Asterisk * indicates exotic species naturalised at the Australian Botanic Garden.