BORAGO OFFICINALIS

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common Name:- Borage

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Borago (L) Shaggy-coat.

Officinalis (L) Officinal medicine.

General description:- Short to medium, bristly annual, occasionally over-

wintering.

Stems:-

a) 15-70 cm.

b) erect, robust.

c) often branched.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:

a) basal, 5-20 cm. ovate to lance-shaped, stalked (petiolate).

b) upper cauline, stalkless (sessile), clasping the stem, but not completely

encircling it (amplexicaul).

Flowers:-

1) Stalks:

a) 5-30 mm.

b) stout, spreading (patent) or deflexed after flowering (anthesis).

2) Calyx:

a) 8-15 mm at anthesis, up to 20 mm in fruit.

b) lobes, linear-lance-shaped, acute.

c) separated at the base but come together distally in fruit, (but not fused).

3) Corolla:

a) wheel-shaped, (rotate).

b) bright blue, with a whitish centre, rarely white.

c) tube, very short or almost absent.

d) lobes, 8-15 mm, lance-shaped acute, spreading or somewhat reflexed pointed

and with a prominent cone of purple-black.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) 7-10 mm.

b) oblong-obovoid.

Key features:-

1) Erect, robust annual.

2) Calyx more than ½ as long as corolla.

Habitat:- Coastal habitats, cultivated, waste and fallow ground, roadsides, often in

dry sunny places. 0-500(-900) m.

Distribution:- W Peloponnisos, Ioinian Islands. - Mediterranean. region, eastwards

to Greece, probably only naturalized in W Anatolia and Cyprus, casual in Rodos.

Widespread in the northern aspect of Crete, absent from the far east.

Flowering time:- Mar-June.occasionally later in damp habitats.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton