Some similarities to : The Comfreys.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics : the appearance; an 18 inch shrub with floppy crinkly hairy leaves and the half-hidden (visible from full-on only) dark-red, nearly brown, flowers.

Distinguishing Feature : If in fruit, the four yellow flattened fruit arranged as in the dots of the 4-side of a dice.

Houndstongue has a strong mousy-type smell, or of roasted peanuts. In the USA it is regarded as a noxious weed, being invasive. Ingestion of the plant by animals can lead to photo-sensitization of the skin probably due to the presence of furocoumarins. Just like Ragwort, Houndstongue also contains pyrrolidizine alkaloids which on ingestion are toxic to the liver, and also cause lung damage. Death may follow. Horses and cattle are most vulnerable.

Habitat: On sandy and sunny places, often near the sea, likes sand dunes and shingle. Inland on dry rather bare grassy places, liking lime.

PYRROLIDIZINE ALKALOIDS Houndstongue contains four pyrrolizidine alkaloids, cynoglossine, consolidin (consolidine), Echinatine (Indicine) and Heliosupine (an open diester pyrrolizidine alkaloid). The main pyrrolidizine alkaloid in Houndstongue is heliosupine, followed by echinatine and consolidine (a gluco-alkaloid, which hydrolyses to a sugar molecule and consolicine) which paralyses the CNS in cattle frogs and vertebrates. Large doses in cattle cause excessive thirst and palsy of the hind legs. Cynoglossine, which is thrice as potent as consolidine, occurs in the roots, and has a paralytic effect similar to the action of curarine on frog muscles. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are metabolically activated within the liver and there will alkylate both proteins and DNA molecules; they are therefore hepatotoxic causing liver damage, as well as mutagenic, teratogenic and carcinogenic. Substantial ingestion results in inhibition of neurons and paralysis. The first two are used medicinally to relieve pain which they accomplish by depressing the Central Nervous System but are potentially carcinogenic. A related compound to indicine, indicine N-oxide, (where an oxygen atom is co-ordinate bonded to the shared ring nitrogen atom) is being tested as a drug against cancer. [The author is still searching for structural formulae for cynoglossine, consolicin(e) and consolidin(e)]. Houndstongue is poisonous to cattle, which can develop nervous symptoms and diarrhoea from which recovery is unlikely even given 3 months. No relation to: Hartstongue nor Addre's Tongue [plants of similar name, but differing family].

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