Boraginaceae A.L. de Jussieu
Lungwort family.
Boraginaceae, lungwort family.
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 3–30 cm high; ascending or decumbent, with fleshy, glabrous, entire leaves. Taproot present. Caudex present. Ground-level or under-ground stems vertical and often branched. Aerial stems erect, or ascending, or decumbent; glabrous. Leaves distributed along the stems; alternate; simple; existing for a single season or less. Petioles present, or absent (leaves near the inflorescence); 0–30(–50) mm long; winged, or unwinged; flat; glabrous. Leaf blade bases attenuate. Blades 15–65 mm long. Blades spreading, or divaricate; succulent (fleshy); straight; ovate, or spatulate; flat; veins pinnate, or appearing single-veined. Blades adaxial surface dull (fresh green), or glaucous (bluish green); glabrous, or scabrous. Blades adaxial surface hairs strigose (if applicable); simple, unbranched; moderately dense (if applicable); white and translucent (if applicable). Blades abaxial surface glaucous, or not glaucous; with sessile glands, or without sessile glands; glabrous. Blade margins entire (sometimes with strigulose hairs). Leaf apices acute, or obtuse, or rounded.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present (aerial stem terminating in a flowering stem from which arise pedicels bearing single flowers). Flowering stems glabrous. Inflorescence cymose; diffuse. Pedicels present; glabrous, or scabrous. Flowers per inflorescence (2–)4–20; small, less than 5 mm in diameter or length, or medium-sized, 5–15 mm in diameter or length. Calyx sepals 5; free (for most of their length), or fused (at the base); 3.5–4.5 mm long; (0.9–)1–2.5 mm wide. Calyx green; bell-shaped, or rotate; 5-lobed; glabrous, or hairy; strigose (if applicable). Calyx hairs white or translucent. Petals fused; 5; white, or purple, or blue; 6–15 mm long. Corolla tubular, or funnel-form; 5-lobed. Stamens 5; fused to the corolla; filaments glabrous. Anthers yellow (sometimes brownish); 0.8–1.7 mm long. Gynoecia superior. Carpels partly fused; 2 (ovary with twice as many segments as carpels). Ovaries subglobose; glabrous. Styles 1; 3.5–10 mm long. Styles straight. Stigmas per style 1; capitate, or receptive surface at the end of an otherwise unmodified style. Placentation axile. Ovules 4. Fruit stalked (ripening into 4 distinct nutlets, individually attached, to the style, at the base of the gynoecium). Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; an aggregate of nutlets; spherical; not distinctly flattened; schizocarpous. Fruit 4–5 mm long; 4–5 mm wide; yellowish, or brown, or golden brown; glabrous; surface appearing veinless. Seeds 1–4; 3–4 mm long; yellowish; with surfaces smooth.
Illustrations. • Boraginaceae: lungwort family. Family characterised by having flowers in one-sided cymes.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).
