Viper's Bugloss

I've seen

viper's bugloss

a few places around town, but so far this year (2006), I've only

seen it near the bridge over Mill River between the two old Draper parking lots. I took the

pictures on July 17, although it had been flowering for some time before that. My Audubon

wildflower book says it flowers from June to October. It also says, "A European species

introduced as early as 1683, this plant is considered a weed by some and a desirable

wildflower by others. Its common name may derive from the resemblance of the nutlets to a

snake's head, or else because the dried plant was an alleged remedy for snakebite.

Bugloss is from the ancient Greek for "ox-tongue," which its leaves were thought to

resemble."