This is a spreading evergreen herbaceous perennial subshrub that grows to about 2½M. Dense spikes of purple/blue flowers rise above hairy grey-green leaves in late spring.
This eye-catching plant can be found in New Zealand as a garden escape, on road-side verges. In Karin’s garden there are also some Echium pininana with their flower spikes up to 4M tall! Their flowers are not as bright as E. fatuosum; so, amazingly, you may actually walk right past one without realising what an awesome plant you just [nearly] met.
Click here to go to the Echium fatuosum page in Karin’s Garden.