Wikimedia Commons
Boraginaceae
Pride of Madeira
Echium candicans
Wild grandeur, island spirit, brilliance.
- Family
- Boraginaceae
- Genus
- Echium
- Native to
- Madeira (Portugal)
- Bloom season
- Spring, Summer
- Type
- Shrub
- Height
- 1.5–2.5 m (5–8 ft)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil
- Sandy, well-drained
- Water
- Low
- Hardiness
- 9–11
- Lifespan
- Short-lived (5–10 years)
Did you know
- Pride of Madeira is the icon of Portugal's Madeira archipelago—a giant cousin of viper's bugloss that grows into a 6-foot shrub crowned with foot-long cones of blue flowers.
- The flower spikes can hold over 5,000 individual florets each, drawing such intense bee activity that the entire shrub buzzes audibly from a distance.
- It has naturalized so thoroughly along the California coast that it's now an iconic 'native-looking' flower of the Pacific Highway—but it's purely Portuguese by origin.
- After two seasons of glorious bloom, the entire plant typically dies—Echium is monocarpic, putting all its energy into one spectacular flowering before exhaustion.
- On Tenerife and the Canary Islands, related species (the 'tower of jewels') can grow over 10 feet tall in a single season—the world's largest borage relatives.
Color meanings
0
wild grandeur
1
island spirit
2
ocean blue