Monday, April 2, 2012

BLUE BLUE BLUE - AGAIN :-)


I was in such a blue cloud while posting pictures of those pretty flowers, that I forgot to give some information about them. They are called in Hebrew lashon par, לשון פר which is translated into English as ox tongue. Why this funny name?  I found out they are called the same in German, Ochsenzunge, so I guess, the tongue of an ox is bristly, like this plant, which has rough hairy stems and leaves. Its botanical name is anchusa azurea:
and it is called in English Italian bugloss. Summer-forget-me-not, Alkanet, Cape-forget-me-not and Dyer's bugloss are other species of anchusa. The plant has many symmetrical flowers with five petals on one stem, with a marvelous deep azure blue color. You can quite easily grow them in your garden, look here:
http://www.frenchgardening.com/inprofile.html?pid=311933595358509
but I love them most in the wild, they grow in Israel from the Golan Heights in the North to the Negev Desert in the South, from March trough May.

Photos by Uri Eshkar.

5 comments:

Hope Adela Pasztor said...

Pretty flowers! =)

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Dawn of LaTouchables said...

They should grow well in our sandy soil...and should grow in Germany, because we are in the correct zone--I will look for them this week.

.. said...

Hallo Yael,
ich habe gleich mal in meinem Pflanzenführerbuch nachgesehen, bei uns heißt sie Acker-Krummhals, Acker-Ochsenzunge...Anchus arvensis.
Sie liebt Äcker, Ödland, stickstoffsalzhaltige, kalk- und basenarme Böden und hat himmelblaue Blüten. Es ist als die gleiche Blüte, die bei uns auch wäschst.
Wie schön, dass ich durch deine hübschen Bilder auf diese Pflanze aufmerksam geworden bin, ich kannte sie vorher nicht.

Schöne Tage und liebe Grüße von Zaunwinde

mispapelicos said...

I am learning so much with you, my dear Yael.
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Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Thank you for the information and a chance to see these wonderful flowers again. I just love them. They remind me of my favorites here in Indiana, USA, Chicory which look similar, but with purple flowers.