Anchusa Species, Alkanet, Common Bugloss

The name Common Bugloss is an interesting one. It sounds like an insecticide, good for losing bugs! In fact the name is made up as bu-glo...Read Moress, with bu deriving for the Latin for ox and gloss for the Latin for tongue. The name really means ox-tongue. I have heard it suggested that this refers to the roughness of the leaves, but I believe it in fact refers to the curled cluster of flower-buds, expanding from the base, with the basal flowers opening first. This has the appearance of a tongue. It shares this feature with some of the other Boraginaceae, such as Viper's Bugloss, Echium vulgare, which has Viper's added, because the forked stigma protruding fom each flower suggests a snake's forked tongue.