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Boraginaceae

bugloss, any plant of the genera Anchusa, Echium, and Pentaglottis of the family Boraginaceae. Bugloss plants are weedy and bristly with small flowers similar in appearance to those of forget-me-nots. The plants have hairy stems and toothed leaves with spiny margins. They grow in sandy places and fields throughout Europe and have become naturalized in eastern North America. Several are commonly grown as ornamentals.

Anchusa officinalis, known as common bugloss or true alkanet, is a narrow-leaved plant that grows 60 cm (2 feet) tall and bears purple flowers in coiled sprays. A. azurea, known as Italian bugloss or large blue alkanet, is a popular garden species. It reaches 120 cm (4 feet) and has narrow leaves and large bright-blue flowers with a tuft of white hairs in the throats.

Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), also known as blue devil or blue weed, has bright-blue flowers and grows to a height of about 90 cm (35 inches). It is a bristly European plant that has become naturalized in North America. Purple viper’s bugloss (E. plantagineum) is similar but is larger-flowered and shorter, with softer hair. It is a garden flower.

Venus's-flytrap. Venus's-flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) one of the best known of the meat-eating plants. Carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap, Venus fly trap
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Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous

Oval pointed evergreen leaves and white-eyed blue flowers characterize the evergreen bugloss (Pentaglottis sempervirens), a perennial that reaches 1 metre (3.3 feet).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.

Boraginaceae, borage or forget-me-not family of flowering plants, with 148 genera and more than 2,700 species. The taxonomy of this family has been contentious: the earlier Cronquist botanical classification system placed it in the order Lamiales, and the first version of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system treated it as part of Solanales. With a lack of consensus regarding its evolutionary history, Boraginaceae was placed in the Euasterids I (lamiids) clade without an order by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG III) in 2009.

Boraginaceae plants are frequently herbaceous and hairy and can be annuals or perennials. Some are vines or trees, and a few are obligate parasites (cannot photosynthesize and thus require a host). Boraginaceae was initially put into Lamiales because it shared with Lamiaceae (mints) and Verbenaceae (vervains) ovaries with four deeply divided partitions, a style attached to the base of the ovary, and fruits that break apart into four nutlets. These similarities appear to have evolved independently, however, and borages differ in having alternate leaves, round stems, different secondary metabolites (no iridoid alkaloids), regular flowers, the same number of stamens and petals, and flower clusters that are often coiled like a scorpion’s tail.

The family includes a number of garden ornamentals, such as Heliotropium (heliotrope), Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebell), Phacelia (scorpion weed), Pulmonaria (lungwort), and Myosotis (forget-me-not). Some of the more typical borages show colour changes of the corolla (the petals, collectively) upon aging, from pink to blue, yellow to pink to blue, or yellow to white; this transformation is caused by changes in the pH of the cellular fluids. Many species are poisonous, but some species have been used medicinally, such as Borago officinalis (borage), Symphytum officinale (comfrey), and Lithospermum (puccoon, or stoneseed). In the tropics the genus Cordia, with more than 200 species, is very diverse and includes some important timber species.

Venus's-flytrap. Venus's-flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) one of the best known of the meat-eating plants. Carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap, Venus fly trap
Britannica Quiz
Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous

Two other groups, which were formerly treated as separate families, have been reassigned as subfamilies in Boraginaceae on the basis of molecular and physiological evidence. One group is Lennooideae (formerly Lennoaceae, or the sand food family), with three genera and seven species of root parasites that have small scalelike leaves and totally lack chlorophyll. They inhabit desert regions in Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, and the southwestern United States, and many are considered rare. They have typically boragelike flowers, but their ovaries are divided into many partitions. The other group is Hydrophylloideae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae, or the waterleaf family), which includes Phacelia (150 species), Hydrophyllum, and Wigandia. They differ from other borages primarily in their parietal placentation and more numerous seeds.

Paul E. Berry