BORAGO OFFICINALIS

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Name:- Borage

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Borago (L) Shaggy-coat.

Officinalis (L) Officinal medicine.

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

wintering.

Stems:-

1) 15-70 cm, erect, robust, often branched.

Leaves:-

a) basal, 5-20 cm. ovate to lanceolate, petiolate.

b) upper cauline, sessile, semi-amplexicaul.

Flowers:-

1) Pedicels, 5-30 mm, stout, patent or deflexed at anthesis.

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

a) lobes, linear-lance-shaped, acute, separated at the base but come together

distally in fruit, (but not fused).

3) Corolla, rotate, bright blue, with a whitish centre, rarely white.

a) tube, very short or almost absent.

b) lobes, 8-15 mm, lanceolate acute, spreading or somewhat reflexed pointed

and with a prominent cone of purple-black.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, 7-10 mm, oblong-obovoid.

Key features:-

1) Erect, robust annual.

2) Calyx, more than ½ as long as corolla.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

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