WILD FLOWERS OF THE ALGARVE
SOUTHERN PORTUGAL

Some of the blue flowers of the Algarve are an incredible rich bright colour: a colour almost impossible to reproduce on paper. One is the Large Blue Alkanet, (Anchusa azurea). It is a very loosely branched shrub with lanceloate hairy leaves. The small blue tubular flowers are less than a centimeter in diameter and have a bright, white mass of hairs in the mouth of the corolla tube.

Scilla monophyllos is found in sandy and stony places in Portugal, S. Spain and Morocco.It has bright blue flowers each subtended by a blue bract. Only one leaf develops.

The Bugloss is a rough hairy bienniel growing on waste lands and on road sides. Its buds are slmost a carmine pink and the mature flowers a deep blue with a purple sheen.

Another hairy plant which will turn fields bright blue is the Dwarf convulvulus (Convulvulus tricolor.) Its flowers are about 2 cm in diameter with yeliow and white centres and bright blue borders.

The Spanish Iris (Iris xiphium) blooms in the grass and scrub of the barrocal. A yellow flowered variety, Iris lusitanica is also found in Portugal.

The delicate lacy Love-in-the-mist (Nigella damascena)is another field flower which is the palest of blues.

A close relative of the Scarlet Pimpernel is the Shrubby Pimpernel (Anagallis monelli). Its small blue flowers have a violet centre and a tuft of purple anthers.

Many large thistles grow here. The hairy Carduncellus (Carduncellus caeruleus) has shiny leaves and blue flower heads 2-3 cm in diamer. Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) has big bright blue flower heads (about 5-6 cm in diameter) and long frond like leaves bearing bunches of spines on the undersurface. The globe Artichoke is a cultivatd non-spiny variety of this plant.

Scabious in lilacs and pinks abound in spring. One has the palest of blue flowers and a globose fruiting head like a tiny bunch of umbrellas.

When rains are good Jasiona lusitanica, the Portuguese Sheep's bit can be found. It has small dense heads (1-2 cm) of blue flowers.

With clusters of small blue flowers and a ruff of leaf-like bracts the Blue Woodruff is aptly named. It is a small plant with whorls of narrow leaves.