salvation Jane

English

Echium plantagineum

In Baldina Creek river bed, near Burra, South Australia

Etymology

From salvation + Jane (“female given name”); a reference to its use as animal fodder in times of drought.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

Salvation Jane (uncountable)

1. (Australia, chiefly South Australia) The plant Echium plantagineum.
   • 2001, Law Book Company, The Federal Law Reports‎^[1], volume 162, page 447:

     The plaintiff, an agency of the Commonwealth, in 1980 proposed to import into Australia and release certain insects for the purpose of eradicating or controlling a plant known as Salvation Jane. The plaintiff regarded Salvation Jane as a noxious weed. However, apiarists and certain others engaged in the production of honey regarded Salvation Jane as useful in agricultural production.

   • 2009, Basia Bonkowski, Shimmer, Large print edition, page 176,

     Salvation Jane coats the hills like a lavender shroud. Its distant beauty is at once mysterious and deceptive—the purple tubular flowers sublime and delicate, the stems holding them prickly and unrelenting.

   • 2009, Nathan Mullins, How to Amputate a Leg: And Other Ways to Stay Out of Trouble‎^[2], page 164:

     Though it is a meagre source of food compared to grass when there is no grass, Salvation Jane may just save the day for a hungry herd.

Synonyms

• (Echium plantagineum): Patterson's curse, Riverina bluebell