Botany 4

A sample of the echium pininana, the trade mark plant of the gardens. All over the place. There are quite a lot of odd plants scattered about this side of the island, but nothing like these.

Native to the Canaries, where we must have seen them, but that is maybe 25 years ago now and memory does not, on this occasion, serve.

The clumps of leaves on the left are the youngsters, which we think will flower next year.

The yellow spikes visible in among the big blue spikes of the echium pininana were mostly covered in some sort of white, sticky looking stuff. Not clear if whether it was a proper product of the plant or of some infestation.

PS: do the big blue spikes give rise to a distinctive sort of honey?

Group search key: vna.