Echium candicans

Pride of madeira

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Pride of Madeira is a naturalized shrub found in coastal regions including central California Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, southern California Coast, and southern Channel Islands on open, dry slopes and bluffs at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from February to October, this plant produces stunning blue to violet flowers in dense elliptic clusters 15 to 40 centimeters long. Growing as a long-lived, many-branched shrub 1 to 2 meters tall with spreading stems, it forms a robust and distinctive landscape presence. Its persistent leaves are narrow-elliptic, 6 to 25 centimeters long, covered in dense strigose hairs with some bulbous-based follicles. The fruit is characterized by black, rough surfaces with fine tubercles.

Habitat: Open, dry slopes, bluffs

Bloom period: Feb-Oct

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: CCo, SnFrB, SCo, s SnGb

California counties: Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Marin, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.