Paterson's curse Identification (Echium plantagineum)

Use a few easy shape and flower checks to assess Echium plantagineum.

• Plants form an upright, branched clump, often reaching 1-3 feet (30-90 cm) tall.
• Basal leaves are broad, oval to heart-shaped, with a pointed tip and long stalks.
• Stem leaves are smaller, narrower, and mostly stalkless, clasping close to the stem.
• Leaves and stems are covered with obvious coarse hairs, giving a rough texture.
• Flowers are funnel-shaped with 5 unequal lobes, usually purple to pink, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) across.

Check both the broad basal leaves and the rough, hairy stems for a solid visual match.

Echium plantagineum shows distinct rosette, stem-forming, flowering, and fruiting features useful for identification.

• Juvenile plant: Begins as a flat basal rosette with oval to lance-shaped leaves, each rough and hairy, on obvious stalks; no upright flowering stem yet.
• Young plant: An erect, branched stem rises from the rosette, reaching about 1-3 feet (30-90 cm); stem leaves become narrower and mostly stalkless.
• Flowering stage: Upper branches carry dense one-sided flower spikes. Funnel-shaped purple to bluish flowers open along the stems, making the plant look taller and more open.
• Fruiting stage: After petals fall, the calyx stays around small, hard nutlets, and the spikes look drier, less colorful, and more obviously seed-bearing than before.

In the cooler season, Echium plantagineum is often visible as a low basal rosette of broad, slightly hairy leaves close to the ground. In spring into early summer, upright stems appear and carry showy purple to pink funnel-shaped flowers. As flowering ends, the plant dries down, leaving brown stems and seed-bearing structures.

A few borage-family weeds are close enough to confuse.

Echium plantagineum is native to the western Mediterranean, especially the Iberian Peninsula, and parts of North Africa. In its native range it is found in open, disturbed ground rather than shaded vegetation. Typical habitats include roadsides, field margins, pastures, grassland, and waste places, often on dry, sunny sites. That setting helps with identification because this species commonly appears as a conspicuous flowering weed in exposed lowland habitats, not as a woodland or wetland plant.

• Poisonous if eaten: Echium plantagineum contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds. Ingestion is a poisoning risk for humans and pets, especially with repeated exposure.
• Skin irritation from hairs: The rough, bristly hairs on the leaves and stems can irritate skin in some people after handling. This is a contact risk rather than an ingestion risk.