Boraginaceae

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Boraginaceae
B. officinalis-flor-1.JPG
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Boraginales
Family: Boraginaceae
Juss. [1]
Subfamilies [2]

Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 [3] to 154 genera with a worldwide distribution. [4]

Contents

The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the order Boraginales within the asterids. [5] Under the older Cronquist system, it was included in the Lamiales, but clearly is no more similar to the other families in this order than it is to families in several other asterid orders. A revision of the Boraginales, also from 2016, split the Boraginaceae into 11 distinct families: [6] Boraginaceae sensu stricto, Codonaceae, Coldeniaceae, Cordiaceae, Ehretiaceae, Heliotropiaceae, Hoplestigmataceae, Hydrophyllaceae, Lennoaceae, Namaceae, and Wellstediaceae.

These plants have alternately arranged leaves, or a combination of alternate and opposite leaves. The leaf blades usually have a narrow shape; many are linear or lance-shaped. They are smooth-edged or toothed, and some have petioles. Most species have bisexual flowers, but some taxa are dioecious. Most pollination is by hymenopterans, such as bees. Most species have inflorescences that have a coiling shape, at least when new, called scorpioid cymes. [7] The flower has a usually five-lobed calyx. The corolla varies in shape from rotate to bell-shaped to tubular, but it generally has five lobes. It can be green, white, yellow, orange, pink, purple, or blue. There are five stamens and one style with one or two stigmas. The fruit is a drupe, sometimes fleshy. [8]

Most members of this family have hairy leaves. The coarse character of the hairs is due to cystoliths of silicon dioxide and calcium carbonate. These hairs can induce an adverse skin reaction, including itching and rash in some individuals, particularly among people who handle the plants regularly, such as gardeners. In some species, anthocyanins cause the flowers to change color from red to blue with age. This may be a signal to pollinators that a flower is old and depleted of pollen and nectar. [9]

Well-known members of the family include:

Genera

According to Kew; [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants that includes sage and mint

The Lamiaceae or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, hyssop, thyme, lavender, and perilla, as well as other medicinal herbs such as catnip, salvia, bee balm, wild dagga, and oriental motherwort. Some species are shrubs, trees, or, rarely, vines. Many members of the family are widely cultivated, not only for their aromatic qualities, but also their ease of cultivation, since they are readily propagated by stem cuttings. Besides those grown for their edible leaves, some are grown for decorative foliage. Others are grown for seed, such as Salvia hispanica (chia), or for their edible tubers, such as Plectranthus edulis, Plectranthus esculentus, Plectranthus rotundifolius, and Stachys affinis. Many are also grown ornamentally, notably coleus, Plectranthus, and many Salvia species and hybrids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caryophyllaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactaceae, and Polygonaceae. It is a large family, with 81 genera and about 2,625 known species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plumbaginaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Plumbaginaceae is a family of flowering plants, with a cosmopolitan distribution. The family is sometimes referred to as the leadwort family or the plumbago family.

<i>Anchusa</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

The genus Anchusa belongs to the borage family (Boraginaceae). It includes about 35 species found growing in Europe, North Africa, South Africa and Western Asia. They are introduced in the United States.

<i>Heliotropium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Heliotropium is a genus of flowering plants traditionally included in the family Boraginaceae s.l., but placed in the family Heliotropiaceae within the Boraginales order, by the Boraginales Working Group.. There are around 325 species in this almost cosmopolitan genus, which are commonly known as heliotropes. They are highly toxic to dogs and cats, as well as to humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polemoniaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Polemoniaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of about 27 genera with 270–400 species of annuals and perennials native to the Northern Hemisphere and South America, with the center of diversity in western North America.

<i>Echium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Echium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that contains about 70 species and several subspecies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boraginales</span> Order of flowering plants within the lammiid clade of eudicots

Boraginales is an order of flowering plants in the asterid clade, with a total of about 125 genera and 2,700 species. Different taxonomic treatments either include only a single family, the Boraginaceae, or divide it into up to eleven families. Its herbs, shrubs, trees and lianas (vines) have a worldwide distribution.

<i>Hackelia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Hackelia (stickseeds) is a genus of plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It includes 54 species found in North America, western South America, temperate Eurasia, and Australia. 12 species are native to California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boraginoideae</span> Subfamily of plants within the borage family (Boraginaceae)

Boraginoideae is a subfamily of the plant family Boraginaceae s.s, with about 42 genera. That family is defined in a much broader sense in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system of classification for flowering plants. The APG has not specified any subfamilial structure within Boraginaceae s.l.

The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a further revision, the APG IV system.

Heliotropiaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants with approximately 450 species worldwide, though it is concentrated especially in the tropics and subtropics.

<i>Eritrichium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Eritrichium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. It contains 78 species. Notable members include Eritrichium howardii and Eritrichium nanum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APG IV system</span> 2016 revision of a flowering plant classification

The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was published in 2016, seven years after its predecessor the APG III system was published in 2009, and 18 years after the first APG system was published in 1998. In 2009, a linear arrangement of the system was published separately; the APG IV paper includes such an arrangement, cross-referenced to the 2009 one.

<i>Euploca</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Euploca is an almost cosmopolitan genus of plants with around 100 species. It was first described by Thomas Nuttall in 1837. While part of the broadly defined Boraginaceae in the APG IV system from 2016, a revision of the order Boraginales from the same year includes Euploca in the separate family Heliotropiaceae. Its species used to be classified in the genera Hilgeria and Schleidenia and in Heliotropium sect. Orthostachys, but were found to form an independent lineage in a molecular phylogenetic analysis, more closely related to Myriopus than to Heliotropium. While many species use the C4 photosynthetic pathway, there are also C3–C4 intermediate species. Species have leaves with a C4-typical Kranz anatomy.

References

  1. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x . hdl: 10654/18083 .
  2. "Boraginaceae Juss., nom. cons". Germplasm Resources Information Network . United States Department of Agriculture. 2007-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
  3. Boraginaceae. Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine Diversityoflife.com
  4. 1 2 "Boraginaceae Juss. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online . Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  5. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2016). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 181 (1): 1–20. doi: 10.1111/boj.12385 . Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  6. Luebert, F.; Cecchi, L.; Frohlich, M.W.; et al. (2016). "Familial classification of the Boraginales". Taxon. 65 (3): 502–522. doi:10.12705/653.5. hdl: 2158/1062790 . ISSN   0040-0262 . Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  7. Buys, Matt H.; Hilger, Hartmut H. (2003). "Boraginaceae Cymes Are Exclusively Scorpioid and Not Helicoid". Taxon. 52 (4): 719–724. doi:10.2307/3647346. ISSN   0040-0262. JSTOR   3647346.
  8. Watson, L. and M. J. Dallwitz. 1992 onwards. Boraginaceae Juss. Archived July 1, 2005, at the Wayback Machine The Families of Flowering Plants. Version: 19 August 2013.
  9. Hess, D. 2005. Systematische Botanik. ISBN   3-8252-2673-5

Further reading