alkanet, any plant of the 50 or so mostly Mediterranean species of the genus Anchusa and the closely related Pentaglottis sempervirens, bearing blue, purple, or white flowers, similar to those of forget-me-nots, on hairy herbaceous stems. They belong to the family Boraginaceae. True alkanet (A. officinalis), also known as common bugloss, bears purple flowers in coiled sprays on narrow-leaved plants, 60 cm (2 feet) tall. Large blue alkanet (A. azurea), or Italian bugloss, is popular as a garden species and reaches 120 cm (4 feet) with narrow leaves and large bright-blue flowers tufted with white hairs in the throats. Oval pointed evergreen leaves and white-eyed blue flowers characterize the evergreen alkanet, or evergreen bugloss (Pentaglottis sempervirens), which reaches 1 metre (3.3 feet). All three species grow in fields and roadside waste spaces in Europe, and true alkanet has become naturalized in some areas of eastern North America.
The closely related Alkanna tinctoria is dyer’s alkanet. Its roots yield a water-insoluble red dye used to colour fat, oil, perfume, wood, marble, and pharmaceutical products.