Japanese name: シベナガムラサキ（蕊長紫） Scientific name:Echium vulgare
[Overview]
A biennial or short-lived perennial 30–80 cm tall.
The whole plant is densely covered with coarse hairs.
There are basal leaves and leaves arranged oppositely on the stem; both are simple and entire.
The basal leaves are oblanceolate, about 10 cm long, with no visible lateral veins and indistinct petioles.
The stem leaves are spatulate to lanceolate and become smaller toward the top.
In the first year after germination it forms a rosette, and from the second year the stem grows upright.
Scorpioid cymes emerge from the leaf axils in the upper part of the stem, and as a whole look like a conical flower spike.
The flowers are pink in bud and turn blue to bluish purple when open; the corolla is 1.5–2 cm across and 5-lobed.
There are 5 stamens with red filaments that protrude far out of the flower.
The fruit is a schizocarp.
