Anchusa procera

Anchusa procera Besser (syn.: A. officinalis subsp. procera (Besser) Lambinon) (SE Eur.) – A rare and usually ephemeral alien, possibly overlooked. Lawalrée (1953) provided an overview of early Belgian records. Well-documented from the Belgian-French border area near Adinkerke (Verloove 2002) where Anchusa procera seems to have been introduced on the occasion of the construction of the motorway Veurne-Calais in the 1990’s. It is locally well-established in sandy, ruderal road verges, waste land, ruderalized inland dunes,…

The taxonomic position of Anchusa procera is somewhat unclear. It was simply included in Anchusa officinalis by Chater (1972) and given subspecific rank under the latter by Lambinon & al. (2004). Although both species occur in the very same area in Belgium hybrids do not seem to occur. They are therefore kept apart in the present treatment (which is also in accordance with Euro+Med Plantbase; http://www.emplantbase.org/home.html).

Selected literature:


Chater A.O. (1972) Anchusa. In: Tutin T.G. & al. (eds.), Flora Europaea, vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 106-109.

Lambinon J. & Blondel C. (2000) Anchusa procera. In: Notes brèves sur certaines centuries distribuées dans le fascicule 28. Soc. Ech. Pl. Vasc. Eur. Bass. Médit., Bull. 28: 90.

Lambinon J., Delvosalle L., Duvigneaud J. (avec coll. Geerinck D., Lebeau J., Schumacker R. & Vannerom H.) (2004) Nouvelle Flore de la Belgique, du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, du Nord de la France et des Régions voisines (Ptéridophytes et Spermatophytes). Cinquième édition. Jardin botanique national de Belgique, Meise: CXXX + 1167 p.

Lawalrée A. (1953) Contribution à l’étude de la flore adventice de la Belgique. Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 86: 137-143.

Verloove F. (2002) Ingeburgerde plantensoorten in Vlaanderen. Mededeling van het Instituut voor Natuurbehoud n° 20: 227 p.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith