Borage

Borage - Borago officinalis

Description

Bristly plant about 50 cm in height. Flowers bright blue with a whitish centre, 20 to 25 mm half nodding and rather star shaped, with spreading pointed lobes and a prominent cone of purple black stamens, borne in broad branched cymes.

Identification difficulty
Habitat

Gardens, cultivated land, waste ground and waysides.

When to see it

May to September.

Life History

Annual, occasionally overwintering. Most records are probably casuals or garden escapes.

UK Status

Widespread, particularly in England but often casual and rarely plentiful.

VC55 Status

Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland. Borage was not recorded the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records

Photo of the association

Agromyza abiens/myosotidis/lithospermi agg.

The larvae of the  Agromyzid flies Agromyza abiens, Agromyza myosotidis and Agromyza lithospermi produce identical mines on the leaves of several food plants in the Boraginaeceae family, such as Borage, Comfrey and Green Alkanet plus a number of other host plants. The initial narrow gallery contains frass in a double line, which it then expands to form a blotch mine. Several larvae may occupy a leaf to form a large blotch. Because the mines on these plants cannot be reliably separated to species level we treat them as an aggregate.