Echium vulcanorum

Echium vulcanorum is a plant species that belongs to the Boraginaceae family, the borage family. It is found only in the Fogo island, Cape Verde.
It was discovered and named by the French botanist Auguste Jean Baptiste Chevalier. He found the plant with flowers on July 1934.
Common names.
It is locally known as "lingua de vaca" ("tongue of cow") because their leaves are rough. The same name is used for the other species of "Echium" that are found in Cape Verde: "Echium hypertropicum" and "Echium stenosiphon".
Description.
It is a shrub with many branches, up to 1.5–2 m tall. The stems are covered with many hairs. The leaves are lanceolates (pointed at both ends) up to 10 cm long and 1.5 wide.
The flowers are in dense inflorescences (groups of flowers), almost conical, up to 18 cm long, with white flowers with blue stripes.
Where it grows.
"Echium vulcanorum" is endemic of the Cape Verdean island of Fogo on the volcano "Pico do Fogo". It occurs on volcanic soils of Fogo Island, mainly as two populations at Monte Losna/Pico Novo, where they can be found at about 1700 m, and in the border of the crater of the "Pico do Fogo" (the "Bordeira" region ) at altitudes between 2200 and 2400 m. A small population was also reported in "Chã das Caldeiras" (±1600 m). These populations exist generally in places facing to the southwest or the southeast. It prefers soils with a recent volcanic origin.
Conservation.
"Echium vulcanorum" is used for the production of (dry wood that will be burned) and destroyed by goats, so this species, as well as the other two "Echium" species of Cape Verde, is seriously threatened, so that measures for its protection should be taken with urgency.
Some conservation actions have been done at the "Bordeira region" (in the Natural Park of Fogo Island) and now there is a population with a relatively high number of individuals.