Higher Taxonomy
Common Name: BORAGE FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, or shrub, often bristly or sharp-hairy. Stem: prostrate-decumbent to erect. Leaf: basal and/or cauline, simple, generally alternate, sometimes opposite, especially at base. Inflorescence: cymes, arranged singly or in groups of 2--5, generally coiled in flower, generally elongating in fruit. Flower: bisexual, generally radial; sepals 5, free or fused at least at base; corolla 5-lobed, salverform, funnel-shaped, rotate, or bell-shaped, appendages (often called "fornices") 0 or 5 at top of tube, when present often differentially pigmented, alternate stamens; stamens epipetalous; ovary superior, 4-lobed, style 1, entire or minutely 2-lobed (2-branched). Fruit: nutlets 1--4, when > 1, all similar (often called "homomorphic") or 1 or 2 dissimilar in size and/or shape from the others (often called "heteromorphic"), free (fused), smooth to roughened, prickly or bristly or not.
Genera In Family: +- 90 genera, +- 1600--1700 species: mostly temperate, especially western North America, Mediterranean; some cultivated (Borago, Echium, Myosotis, Symphytum). Toxicity: Many genera may be TOXIC from pyrrolizidine alkaloids or accumulated nitrates. Note: Sometimes still treated in broader sense of TJM2 (e.g., APG IV 2016 Bot J Linn Soc 181:1--20), but recent evidence (Luebert et al. 2016) supports segregation, for our flora, of the families Ehretiaceae, Heliotropiaceae, Hydrophyllaceae, Lennoaceae, and Namaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael G. Simpson, C. Matt Guilliams, Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman & Ronald B. Kelley
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin, C. Matt Guilliams, Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman, David J. Keil, Ronald B. Kelley, Robert W. Patterson, Thomas J. Rosatti & Michael G. Simpson
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Plagiobothrys
Habit: Annual (perennial herb), generally strigose to spreading-hairy; fibrous- to taprooted, staining red dye present or not. Stem: branched at base or above, < 5 dm. Leaf: cauline or basal and cauline, 0.5--10 cm, generally smaller tipward, linear to oblanceolate. Inflorescence: raceme- or spike-like cymes, coiled in bud, generally elongate in fruit; bracts 0--many. Flower: calyx lobes fused below middle, 2--10 mm in fruit; corolla rotate to funnel-shaped or cylindric, white or white with yellow area, tube generally +- yellow inside, limb 1--12 mm diam, appendages prominent to minute, white to yellow. Fruit: nutlets generally 4, +- ovate (triangular to +- lanceolate), rarely on narrow stalk or short peg, variously roughened, abaxially generally with central ridge, lateral ridges, cross-ribs, generally tubercled, occasionally prickly or bristly; adaxially keeled above attachment scar, scar on side generally near middle to base, sometimes on bottom or oblique (on angle between side and bottom), generally raised. Species In Genus: +- 65 species: temperate western North America, western South America, northeastern Asia, Australia. Etymology: (Greek: sideways pit, from position of nutlet attachment scar) Note: Nutlet characters in key generally best for 3 nutlets farthest from stem; yellow on corolla changes to white after pollination. Other taxa in TJM (2012) moved to Amsinckiopsis and Sonnea. Unabridged Note: Fully mature nutlets needed for identification; in many species nutlet closest to stem often more firmly attached, larger, differently textured, and with completely different attachment scar than other 3; nutlet characters used in key focus on 3 more loosely attached nutlets. Intergradation common in some species groups; reticulate speciation in genus; sect. Allocarya often treated as separate genus in older works; many species need study. Corolla size can diminish markedly during flower period. Yellow corolla appendages and, if present, contrasting yellow corolla centers, change to white after successful pollination.Jepson eFlora Author: Ronald B. Kelley & C. Matt Guilliams Unabridged Reference: Horn 2000 Ph.D. Dissertation Univ Munich; Johnston 1932 Contr Arnold Arboretum 3:1--102; Guilliams 2015 Ph.D. Dissertation Univ CA Berkeley.Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Plagiobothrys
Previous taxon: Pectocarya setosaNext taxon: Plagiobothrys acanthocarpus
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Citation for this treatment: Ronald B. Kelley & C. Matt Guilliams 2021, Plagiobothrys, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 9, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=8764, accessed on January 25, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on January 25, 2025.
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