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Echium simplex; photograph (c) Jakob Horz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jakob Horz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-10-30

Echium simplex DC.

Pride-of-Tenerife; Tower of Jewels

Boraginaceae · Canary Is.

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Echium simplex, photograph (c) Jakob Horz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Echium simplex, photograph (c) Jakob Horz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Echium simplex, photograph (c) James Rodger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Echium simplex, photograph (c) James Rodger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Echium simplex, photograph (c) James Rodger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Echium simplex, photograph (c) Diego Rodríguez Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) 34 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
14.8°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
431mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–49DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Echium simplex, commonly known as pride of Tenerife or tower of jewels, is an herbaceous biennial plant which grows up to 3 m (9.8 ft) in height.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Echium simplex", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Echium

Echium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that contains about 70 species and several subspecies.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Echium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (318 mm of 435 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.4 °C against a yearly mean of 18.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

435 mm in the median year at the habitat, 318 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 74 mm, driest month July at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 337 mm to 681 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 431 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 435 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.8 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 11.3 °C to 16.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.6 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 14.8 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Echium simplex through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 14.8 °C; 435 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 21–49RH 61–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 36 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 15–1816 / 15–1817 / 15–1817 / 16–1818 / 17–1920 / 19–2122 / 21–2423 / 22–2422 / 21–2321 / 20–2219 / 18–2117 / 16–19
Night °C15 / 11–1715 / 11–1615 / 12–1615 / 12–1716 / 13–1818 / 16–2020 / 17–2221 / 18–2221 / 18–2219 / 16–2118 / 14–1916 / 13–18
Rain mm60 / 45–8661 / 52–10452 / 40–7528 / 19–3912 / 6–155 / 2–83 / 0–55 / 2–614 / 7–1950 / 30–7571 / 57–11074 / 65–156
DLI23 / 19–2729 / 26–3337 / 34–4042 / 41–4547 / 45–4849 / 47–5048 / 45–5044 / 43–4739 / 36–4131 / 28–3524 / 21–2821 / 17–25
RH %61 / 57–6462 / 57–6461 / 55–6362 / 57–6663 / 57–6764 / 54–6961 / 48–6861 / 50–6863 / 55–6764 / 59–6762 / 59–6563 / 59–65

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 36% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 36 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (97 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1229:3275 (28.525, -16.225). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 36 distinct grid cells holding 97 of the 101 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1229:3275 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 36% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-16.250, lapse-corrected +246 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 425 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCanary Is. · introduced: Azores, Madeira, Cape Provinces, St.Helena · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker28.562, -16.297 · in the densest population, 120 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“biennial or subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 120 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 97 of them in the land cells it reads, of 101 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 23 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 60 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 19 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 120 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Echium simplex, photograph 1did not loadEchium simplex, photograph 2did not loadEchium simplex, photograph 3did not loadEchium simplex, photograph 4did not loadEchium simplex, photograph 5did not loadEchium simplex, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jakob Horz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) James Rodger, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Diego Rodríguez Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Gonospermum fruticosum Gonospermum fruticosum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Lídia CarreraArgyranthemum broussonetii Argyranthemum broussonetii Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Ben JobsonCeropegia dichotoma Ceropegia dichotoma Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Mikel Etxeberria OkarizEchium leucophaeum Echium leucophaeum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Pablo MRMonanthes polyphylla Monanthes polyphylla Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben JobsonAeonium haworthii Aeonium haworthii Haworth's aeonium Photo: CC BY, Jenny Saito

Other Echium 32 in the reference

Echium acanthocarpum Echium acanthocarpum Blue bugloss Photo: CC BY, Ismael Medina RodríguezEchium aculeatum Echium aculeatum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeEchium amoenum Echium amoenum Boraginaceae Photo: Public domain, خودم(Ram!n)Echium angustifolium Echium angustifolium Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, natomikEchium auberianum Echium auberianum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Lídia CarreraEchium boissieri Echium boissieri Boraginaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedEchium brevirame Echium brevirame Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan RodríguezEchium callithyrsum Echium callithyrsum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozEchium candicans Echium candicans Pride of Madeira Photo: CC BY, Thomas KoffelEchium creticum Echium creticum Cretan viper's bugloss Photo: CC BY, Julia MoningEchium decaisnei Echium decaisnei Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Christoph MoningEchium giganteum Echium giganteum Boraginaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 33 ›

Names & registers

Under another author Echium creticum Sims is an older name of this species, not Echium creticum, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Boraginaceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
120 in range · 23 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-16.250, lapse-corrected +246 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (36% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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