68; see text Echium /ˈɛkiəm/[2] is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that contains about 70 species and several subspecies.

Species of Echium are native to North Africa, mainland Europe to Central Asia, and the Macaronesian islands where the genus reaches its maximum diversity.

Twenty-nine species of Echium are endemic to the Canary, Madeira, and Cape Verde archipelagos.

[4] The Latin genus name Echium comes from the Greek ἔχιον echion, referring to Echium plantagineum[5] and itself deriving from ἔχις echis (viper); the Greek term dates to Dioscorides, who noted a resemblance between the shape of the nutlets and a viper's head.

[1] In Crete, Echium italicum is called pateroi (πάτεροι) or voidoglosses (βοϊδόγλωσσες) and its tender shoots are eaten boiled or steamed.