Name/Όνομα: Έχιον το ιουδαίον*
Scientific name/Επιστημονικό όνομα: Echium judaeum Lacaita
Common name/Κοινό Όνομα: Judean Viper´s-bugloss
Family/Οικογένεια: BORAGINACEAE
* Η απόδοση του είδους στα Ελληνικά είναι εισήγηση του συγγραφέα.
Description
Plant: Annual growing up to 50 cm high.
Stem/s: Erect, branched, cylindrical, covered with sparse red spots and a mixture of dense short hairs and sparse long whitish and thick hairs (hispid).
Leaves: Alternate, simple, entire, oblong to oblong-elliptic and sessile, with rough texture, densely covered with thick and hard whitish hairs (hispid).
Flowers: Zygomorphic and hermaphrodite in many-flowered, terminal and pyramidal or irregularly branched cymes; calyx campanulate with 5 linear and hispid lobes; corolla trumpet-shaped, dark blue or violet, covered with short, and soft whitish hairs, while more long whitish hairs are present along the veins; stamens 5, included, very often the 2 longer exserted from corolla; filaments erect, whitish-violet and glabrous, anthers blue; style 1, white and glabrous, stigma 2-lobed.
Flowering time: March-April.
Fruit: 4 nutlets.
Habitat: Very rare in Cyprus and it is found at phrygana vegetation and stony slopes on calcareous ground, from 50-100 m alt.
Native: Endemic to Lebanon, Southern Syria and Israel.
