Echium vulgare

Common Name: Viper's bugloss

Echium can be annuals, biennials, evergreen perennials or shrubs, with simple, coarsely hairy leaves and funnel-shaped flowers borne in panicles or dense spikes in summer. E. vulgare is an erect, bristly biennial to 75cm, with lance-shaped, hairy leaves and dense cylindrical spikes of bell-shaped violet-blue flowers in early summer