Italian bugloss (Echium italicum)
Italian bugloss is a biennial hairy plant. It is an uncommon weed that is related to Paterson's curse.
Profile
How does this weed affect you?
Italian bugloss is an uncommon weed of pasture, crops, roadsides and wasteland and can be poisonous to livestock.
What does it look like?
Italian bugloss is a biennial or perennial herb up to 80 cm high, Plants usually have only one stem and they have short dense hairs.
Leaves grow in a rosette at the base of the plant and along the stems. They are lance shaped, often with wavy margins, densely hairy, 6–30 cm long and 1–3.5 cm wide.
The flowers are conical, up to 1.2 cm long and usually cream or yellow (sometimes pale pink or white). Flowering occurs from spring to summer.
Italian bugloss looks similar to Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum) which has heart shaped leaves at the base, taller up to 120 cm and less hairy. Italian bugloss also looks similar to Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), which is less hairy, has smaller leaves and usually blue flowers with white hairs.
Where is it found?
In NSW, a few infestations have been recorded in the Murray and Upper Hunter region.
Italian bugloss is native to Europe.
References
PlantNET (The NSW Plant Information Network System). Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney. Retrieved from: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Echium~italicum
Richardson, F. J., Richardson, R. G., & Shepherd, R. C. H. (2011). Weeds of the south-east: an identification guide for Australia (No. Ed. 3). CSIRO.
More information
Control
Herbicide options
Contact your local council weeds officer for control advice for Italian bugloss (Echium italicum).
Biosecurity duty
The content provided here is for information purposes only and is taken from the NSW Biosecurity Act 2015 and its subordinate legislation, and the Regional Strategic Weed Management Plans (published by each Local Land Services region in NSW). It describes the state and regional priorities for weeds in New South Wales, Australia.
| Area | Duty |
|---|---|
| All of NSW | General Biosecurity Duty All pest plants are regulated with a general biosecurity duty to prevent, eliminate or minimise any biosecurity risk they may pose. Any person who deals with any plant, who knows (or ought to know) of any biosecurity risk, has a duty to ensure the risk is prevented, eliminated or minimised, so far as is reasonably practicable. |
Reviewed 2014
