Viper's bugloss is a robust, taprooted biennial plant with bristly hairs and usually with single stems. It can grow 2½ feet tall.
The flowers are along the upper stalks in one-sided spikes in an unfurling, tight coil; each flower is funnel-shaped with uneven lobes to ¾ inch long; the petals are pink in bud but turn blue to ultramarine later, with pink stamens protruding. A form with white flowers occurs rarely.
Blooms May–September.
The leaves are linear-oblong, sessile, and extremely white-hairy (as are the stems), giving the plant a silvery appearance.
Height: 1 to 2½ feet.
Scattered mostly in the eastern half of the Ozarks and Ozark Border Divisions of north, eastern, and central Missouri.
Habitat and Conservation
Native to Europe. Occurs in moist or dry places, including banks of streams or rivers, gravel bars, upland prairies, openings of moist upland forests, pastures, railroads, roadsides, and open, disturbed areas. Notably common in pastures and along roadsides.
Status
Nonnative wildflower. Native to southern Europe. Often considered a weed in cultivated gardens.
Human Connections
A nonnative, introduced plant, often considered a weed, as it can self-seed and spread aggressively. Some, however, value it for its attractive flowers.
This plant, like many other members of the borage family, contains toxic alkaloids that make it a potential problem for livestock that graze on it, which might happen if this plant spreads to an overgrazed pasture from a nearby roadside.
The odd name “bugloss” is a common name for borages in Europe.
This plant is associated with “vipers” because the nutlets supposedly resemble a snake’s head. According to antique medicinal reasoning, that resemblance signified that the plant could function as a treatment for snakebites. Since the plant contains toxic alkaloids, eating it could poison you.
Ecosystem Connections
A wide variety of bees, butterflies, skippers, and other insects are attracted to the pollen and nectar of viper’s bugloss.
With its toxic chemicals and bristly foliage, it is unlikely that many mammals eat it.
Several types of insects feed on the foliage, flowers, sap, and other parts of this plant. There is a good chance they become toxic from eating this plant, thus protected from their predators.
The bristly hairs on the seeds indicate that they might cling to fur and be distributed by mammals.
A nonnative grass miner moth, the viper's bugloss moth (Ethmia bipunctella), is native to the same region the plant originally came from; it has been introduced to North America and persists in parts of the northeast. Its larvae feed not only on viper's bugloss but also on several native members of the borage family.
