Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae
Forget-me-not (Myosotis discolor)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	(unplaced)
Family:	Boraginaceae Juss.
Subfamilies
Boraginoideae Cordioideae Ehretioideae Heliotropioideae Hydrophylloideae Lennooideae[1]

Boraginaceae, the Borage or Forget-me-not family, includes a variety of shrubs, trees, and herbs, totaling about 2,000 species in 146 genera found worldwide. ^[2] A number of familiar plants belong to this family.

The Boraginaceae belong, according to the APG II, among the euasterid I group including the orders Gentianales, Lamiales, and Solanales, but whether they should be assigned to one of these orders or to their own (Boraginales) is still uncertain. Under the older Cronquist system they were included in the Lamiales, but it is now clear that they are no more similar to the other families in this order than they are to families in several other asterid orders. The Boraginaceae are paraphyletic with respect to Hydrophyllaceae and the latter is included in the former in APG II system. In some recent classifications the Boraginaceae are broken up into several families: Boraginaceae s.s., Cordiaceae, Ehretiaceae, Heliotropiaceae, Hydrophyllaceae, and Lennoaceae.

Most though not all members of this family have hairy leaves. The coarse character of the hairs is due to Silicon dioxide and Calcium carbonate. In some species, Anthocyanins cause the flowers to change their color from red to blue when aging. This is likely used as a signal to pollinators that these old flowers are depleted of pollen and nectar (Hess, 2005).

Well-known members include:

• Alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria)
• Borage (Borago officinalis)
• Comfrey (Symphytum)
• Fiddleneck (Amsinckia spp.)
• Forget-me-not (Myosotis spp.)
• Geiger tree (Cordia sebestena)
• Green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens)
• Heliotrope (Heliotropium spp.)
• Hound's Tongue (Cynoglossum)
• Lungwort (Pulmonaria)
• Oyster Plant (Mertensia maritima)
• Patterson's Curse (Echium plantaginuem)
• Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla)
• Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare)

Genera

Boraginaceae

Heliotropium strigosum in Keesara, Rangareddy district, Andhra Pradesh, India.

References

• Diane, N., H. Förther, and H. H. Hilger. 2002. A systematic analysis of Heliotropium, Tournefortia, and allied taxa of the Heliotropiaceae (Boraginales) based on ITS1 sequences and morphological data. American Journal of Botany 89: 287-295 (online abstract here).
• Gottschling, M., H. H. Hilger 1, M. Wolf 2, N. Diane. 2001. Secondary Structure of the ITS1 Transcript and its Application in a Reconstruction of the Phylogeny of Boraginales. Plant Biology (Stuttgart) 3: 629-636.
• Hess, Dieter. 2005. Systematische Botanik. ISBN 3-8252-2673-5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boraginaceae

• Boraginaceae in Topwalks
• Boraginaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. http://delta-intkey.com
• ITIS entry for Boraginaceae