Italian viper's bugloss

Value for beekeeping

Italian viper's bugloss is a biennial growing on dry pastures, roadsides and fallow fields. Its long, branched spike keeps opening new flowers for weeks and yields nectar all day. Because viper's buglosses keep secreting in hot weather, they are valuable during summer drought.

Flowering

It flowers from May to August; in the first year it forms a leaf rosette and in the second year it bolts and flowers. Its flowers are paler, whitish-pink in tone, than those of its close relative Echium vulgare.

Honey and pollen

It is not commonly produced as a separate honey; its nectar goes into meadow and mountain honeys. Pollen is collected too.

Warning

Viper's buglosses contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA); these substances are found mostly in the pollen and less in the honey. In areas where the plant dominates, honey mixed with other sources lowers the risk.

Note for the beekeeper

Places on stony pastures where this species is abundant make a good interim site for midsummer.