Viper’s Bugloss Echium vulgare is one of the top 5 best honey plants in the world. This native British biennial is a member of the Boraginaceae family. Its cousin Borage is also a very good plant for honey production.

It is also known as blueweed, blue thistle, blue devil. It is going over now but it has spread well over the LNR and this is very good news for the insects that use it. Rare caterpillars also use it. In 2013 the moth expert Tim Freeddid a moth survey and found 3 nationally scarce species on the LNR using the Vipers Bugloss.

He wrote this about the rare moths:-

Significantly, three of these Nationally Scarce moths have viper’s-bugloss Echium vulgare as their larval foodplant and all four species are largely restricted to shingle beaches in the coastal region. Tinagma ocnerostomella was recorded abundantly at Shoreham Shingles in the latter part of C19th, but apparently not since then (Pratt, 2011). Three specimens of Coleophora pennella were recorded from Shoreham Beach by THF on 13^th June 2007, the only previous records for Shoreham having been made in the latter part of C19th (ibid). The record of Ethmia terminella constitutes a first for this moth in West Sussex (VC13). The species is also found on the coast at Rye and Eastbourne where it is extremely local. Dolicharthria punctalis is probably the most widespread (Sussex-wise) of these notable moths though apparently it has not been noted at Shoreham since c.1924, probably due to a lack of recording effort (ibid). A singleton of the tortricid Crocidosema plebejana was also taken. This species appears to be quite well established along the Sussex coast where tree-mallow, its larval foodplant, grows.