Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes borage, forget-me-nots, and many species with rough, hairy leaves and coiled flower clusters.

Cymose inflorescence: A flower cluster in which the central or earliest flowers open before later flowers. Many Boraginaceae bear coiled cymes that unroll as successive flowers open.
Borage: Borago officinalis, an annual herb with star-shaped blue flowers and edible leaves and flowers. This familiar cultivated species is the namesake of the family.
Borage oil: A seed oil rich in gamma-linolenic acid, extracted chiefly from Borago officinalis. The seeds of borage are cultivated as a commercial source of this fatty acid.
Asterids: A major clade of flowering plants that includes many sympetalous families. Boraginaceae belongs to this broad lineage of flowering plants.
Boraginales: An order of flowering plants centered on Boraginaceae and its close relatives. Its circumscription depends partly on which related groups are included with Boraginaceae.
Scorpioid cyme: A coiled flower cluster whose successive branches develop along one side, resembling a scorpion’s tail. This characteristic inflorescence gives many members their distinctive curled flower stalks.
Forget-me-not: A common name for Myosotis species, small flowering plants often bearing blue flowers. Myosotis illustrates the family’s small, five-petaled flowers and coiled inflorescences.
Gamma-linolenic acid: An omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid found in some plant oils and formed from linoleic acid. Borage seed oil is valued for its unusually high concentration of this fatty acid.
Lamiales: An order of flowering plants that includes mints, sages, and many other sympetalous families. Boraginaceae was historically placed in Lamiales, but modern classifications generally place it elsewhere.
Plant systematics: The study of plant diversity and evolutionary relationships, including classification and naming. Molecular evidence continues to reshape the family’s subdivisions and relationships.

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MyosotisNarrower topic: Myosotis belongs to this family, whose shared traits help place the genus among flowering plants.