Anchusa arvensis is a species of flowering plant in the borage family Boraginaceae. Its common names include bugloss, small bugloss, annual bugloss, and field bugloss. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus, and given its exact name by Friedrich Bieberstein in Flora Taurico-Caucasica.
This is a coarsely hairy annual herb which may reach half a meter in height. It bears small blue tubular flowers, four nutlets per flower, and one seed per nutlet. Leaves are very bristly and warty-looking, which differentiates it from similar species like Pentaglottis sempervirens and Myosotis arvensis.
The plant is native to continental Europe, and was introduced in North America, the UK, South America, Tasmania and Russia.
Anchusa arvensis is found in arable field margins, sandy heaths, disturbed ground.
Anchusa arvensis flowers April to September in the UK and from February to July in Portugal.
It has two subspecies, both present in Portugal:
In Portugal it has several commons names such as buglossa, buglossa-do-norte, erva-do-fÃÂgado, erva-sangue, borrage, borragem, chupa-mel, lÃÂngua-de-vaca or orcaneta.
Of the two subspecies, none is currently protected by Portuguese legislation or by the European Union. It is considered to be Near Threatened in Switzerland, and likely Least Concern overall. In the UK it is a declining species with patchy distribution, however conservation status as of 2005 is least concern.
This species has 11 synonyms, 3 homotypic and 8 heterotypic: