Anchusa azureaMill. - Garden Anchusa
Scientific Description:
Coarsely hispid to strigose perennial; stems erect, 20−150 cm. Leaves linear-elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 50−200 × 6−40 mm, ± entire to faintly undulate-crenate; indumentum dense, of soft or stiff setae. Inflorescence elongating considerably in fruit, bracts minute, linear-lanceolate. Calyx c. 8 mm in flower, 12−15 mm in fruit, divided almost to base into linear, acute lobes. Corolla violet or deep blue, occasionally paler or even white, tube 6−10 mm; lobes 5−8 mm. Stamens inserted at top of tube and overlapping the scales. Nutlets 6−10 × 2−3 mm, oblong, erect.
Flowering time: April−July.
Habitat: Fields, dry steppe, etc., s.1.−2500 m.
var. azurea
Leaves herbaceous, setulose to hispid. Leaves hispid to tuberculate-setulose (indumentum monomorphic); upper leaves linear.
Reference:
Chamberlain DF (1978). Anchusa azurea Mill., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 6: 393.
Public Description:
Anchusa azurea, common names “garden anchusa”, “Loddon Royalist”, “dropmore”, is a bristly perennial plant, and native to Europe and western Asia and north Africa. This plant, with its bright purple-blue colors, can grow up over half a meter. The plant contains some alkaloids that can cause paralysis when eat. In Turkish folk medicine, the plant used for wound healing and diuretic. Red dye is obtained from its roots, also leaves and flowers are used for eczema treatment. It is found in sides of arable fields, waste places, roadsides and steppes on stony hills.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2015). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchusa_azurea/, Accessed date: 22.12.2015.
Anonymous 2 (2015). http://www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/a/anchusa-azurea=anchusa.php /, Accessed date: 22.12.2015.
Çöteli E (2015). Tort (Anchusa azurea Miller var. azurea) Bitkisindeki A, E, C Vitaminleri, Malondialdehit ve Glutatyon Miktarlarının Araştırılması. Fen Bilimleri Dergisi 5(2): 155−162.
Körüklü ST (2012). Anchusa L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (edlr.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 223−224.