Whitish viper's bugloss
Echium nervosum
Family · Boraginaceae · Irritating
Irritant
The echium of Madeira's low dry coasts, more compact and paler than the blue one, with deeply veined leaves that look engraved.
Where it grows
Dunes and sand · Scrubland · Walls and rocks
Also known asveined echium
In flower
How to tell it
A compact rounded shrub, silvery with hairs. Leaves in rosettes at the branch ends, with strongly marked, deeply impressed side veins, which gives the scientific name. A short dense, almost globular inflorescence, pale blue to whitish or pink. It grows near the sea. Range: endemic to Madeira.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No food use. A honey plant, like its blue cousin, and with the same rough hairs that irritate skin.