Description:

• Annual or perennial herbs, shrubs or trees, variably hairy, often strigose, trichomes often with conspicuous multicellular bases
• Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite, subopposite or rosulate at base, simple, sessile or petiolate, usually entire; stipules 0
• Flowers bisexual, regular or occasionally irregular, in terminal or axillary, bifurcate cymes or in raceme-like or panicled groups, inflorescence branches frequently scorpioid and spirally inrolled when young, uncoiling as flowers open; bracts leafy, small or 0
• Calyx persistent, sometimes accrescent in fruit; tube campanulate or cylindric, sometimes very short; lobes usually 5, imbricate or open, rarely valvate
• Corolla (2-)4-7-lobed, imbricate or contorted in bud; tube cylindric, ± funnel-shaped, campanulate or rotate, the tube very reduced; throat often with (faucal) scales, fornices, thickenings or folds between lobes
• Stamens as many as and alternating with corolla lobes, epipetalous, exserted or included; filaments sometimes dilated at base, sometimes with a densely hairy scale or protuberance where arising on corolla; anthers 2-thecous, opening by longitudinal slits
• Disc present or 0
• Ovary superior, entire or deeply 4-lobed, 2-locular with 2 ovules in each or with 4, 1-ovuled locules due to development of false partitions; placentation at times appearing basal but actually axile; style terminal or gynobasic (arising from between ovary lobes), entire or 2-4-fid or twice 2-fid; stigmas various
• Fruit usually a schizocarp of four 1-seeded nutlets (mericarps), or drupaceous with four 1-seeded stones, rarely a 1- or 2-seeded loculicidal capsule; gynobase (receptacle) conical or pyramidal or flat
• Seeds erect, oblique or horizontal; endosperm 0 or scanty; embryo straight

Nomenclature:

• Boraginaceae
  • Jussieu: 128 (1789) as Borragineae
  • Candolle: 466 (1845) as Borragineae
  • Boissier: 123 (1879)
  • Gürke: 71 (1897)
  • Wright: 2 (1904)
  • Lawrence: 684 (1951)
  • Phillips: 625 (1951)
  • Melchior: 431 (1964)
  • Friedrich-Holzhammer: 1 (1967)
  • Riedl: 1 (1967)
  • Taton: 1 (1971)
  • Valentine & Chater: 83 (1972)
  • Airy Shaw: 150 (1973)
  • Mabberley: 74 (1989)
  • Martins: 59 (1990)
  • Al-Shehbaz: 1 (1991)
  • Nowicke & Miller: 3 (1991)
  • Verdcourt: 1 (1991)
  • Zomlefer: 218 (1994)
  • Riedl: 43 (1997)
• Asperifoliaceae Rchb.
  • Reichenbach: 118 (1828)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genera ± 131, species ± 2500; widely distributed in mainly temperate and tropical regions of the Old and New World, with a major centre of diversity in the Mediterranean
• Southern Africa: Genera 17 (4 exotic), species ± 105

References:

• AIRY SHAW, H.K. 1973. Boraginaceae. A dictionary of the flowering plants and ferns, edn 8. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• AL-SHEHBAZ, I.A. 1991. The genera of Boraginaceae in the southeastern United States. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, supplementary series 1
• BOISSIER, P.E. 1879. Borragineae. Flora orientalis 4. H. Georg, Geneva
• CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1845. Borragineae. Prodromus 9. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
• FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M. 1967. Boraginaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 120
• GÜRKE, M. 1897. Borraginaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 4, 3a
• JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Genera plantarum. Herissant & Barrois, Paris
• LAWRENCE, G.H.M. 1951. Boraginaceae. Taxonomy of vascular plants. The Macmillan Company, New York
• MABBERLEY, D.J. 1997. The plant-book, edn 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• MARTINS, E.S. 1990. Boraginaceae. Flora zambesiaca 7,4
• MELCHIOR, H. 1964. Boragineae. In H.G.A. Engler, Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin-Nikolassee
• NOWICKE, J.W. & MILLER, J.S. 1991. Boraginaceae. In M.D. Dassanayake, A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi
• PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
• REICHENBACH, L. 1828. Asperifoliaceae. Conspectus regni vegetabilis. C. Cnobloch, Leipzig
• RIEDL, H. 1967. Boraginaceae. Flora iranica 48
• RIEDL, H. 1997. Boraginaceae. Flora malesiana 13
• TATON, A. 1971. Boraginaceae. Flore du Congo du Rwanda et du Burundi. Boraginaceae
• VALENTINE, D.H. & CHATER, A.O. 1972. Boraginaceae. Flora europaea 3
• VERDCOURT, B. 1991. Boraginaceae. Flora of tropical East Africa. Boraginaceae
• WRIGHT, C.H. 1904. Boragineae. Flora capensis 4,2
• ZOMLEFER, W.B. 1994. Guide to flowering plant families. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

Resources:

• Classification of Boraginaceae
• Key to Boraginaceae genera

• Boraginaceae genera: