Blue and very visible

Its Estonian name, ussikeel, means snake’s tongue. We can see the snake’s tongue in the flower – the pistil reaches out from between the petals and it is two-pronged at the tip, quite as a snake’s tongue; the pink stamens are prominent too. The massive hairyness of the plant is striking; all of it is really rough, a little prickly. With this the plant warns about its poisonousness; it isn’t edible for animals, but for bees it is a plant with a first-class nectar supply. Thanks to this the plants get properly pollinated: the seeds ripen in August. The plant is biennial, and only grows a rosette of leaves in its first year; in the second year it flowers...