Erinus alpinus, the fairy foxglove,[1] alpine balsam,[2] starflower, or liver balsam, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae (previously in the family Scrophulariaceae), native to Central and Southern Europe.[3][4]and also to Morocco and Algeria.[5]

Erinus alpinus
Erinus alpinus flowering in a crack in the cement
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Plantaginaceae
Genus:	Erinus
Species:	E. alpinus
Binomial name
Erinus alpinus L.

It is a semi-evergreen, perennial chasmophyte with 10 cm (4 in) stems of narrow blue-green leaves and clusters of rose-pink flowers at the tips in spring and summer. It is popularly grown in rockeries or alpine gardens; and it occasionally becomes naturalised outside its native range, especially on old stone walls, shown well from a well-known location for this species on the old packhorse bridge at Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland [6]

It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[7][8]

In folk belief of Northumberland

Botanist and noted authority on plant-lore Albert Roy Vickery quotes an informant from the town of Hexham thus:

Fairy foxglove is a small, purple flower which grows intermittently on stone walls in north-east England. Local tradition says that it only grows where Roman soldiers have trod. And certainly it is to be found in the village of Wall (which is, of course, located near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland).[9]

Gallery

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  Solsonès, Catalonia
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  With Paronychia kapela subsp. serpyllifolia, Summit of Piméné, nr. Gavarnie, Hautes-Pyrénées

References

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[es] Erinus alpinus