Friday, April 2, 2010

pride of Madeira ~ 04/02/10 ~ at home

pride of Madeira
Echium candicans
Boraginaceae

We leave for a couple weeks and the first thing I notice after the sun rises is the blooming pride of Madeira below our balcony. When we left, these were all green with many grey, spindly, dried sticks from last year's flowers - hey, it's in the park and no one deadheads. These are a little late blooming compared to others in town. Also, this is the first time I've noticed the two different colors, one blue, the other purple.

E. candicans is in the Borage family, which apparently includes the classic forget-me-not and fiddlenecks. Who knew!?! I would never have figured that out on my own. Everything I've seen on this plant says it's "resistant to deer." Haha, no wonder we have so much around town!