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Borago officinalis
Also called Common borage, Beebread, Beeplant, Starflower, Talewort, Boražina, Bee Plant
Borage is a bristly annual herb from the Mediterranean with blue star-shaped flowers, grown for its edible leaves and flowers and its seed oil. It self-seeds readily and can become invasive, and it is a favourite of bees.
Borage ( or ; Borago officinalis), also known as starflower, is an annual herb in the flowering plant family Boraginaceae native to the Mediterranean region. Although the plant contains small amounts of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, some parts are edible and its seeds provide oil.
In addition to the liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) found in the leaves and seed oil, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has advised that honey from borage contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, transferred to the honey through pollen collected from the flowers, and recommends that commercial honey production select for raw honey with limited PA content to prevent contamination.
Borage is native to the Mediterranean region, though it has become naturalized in many other locales. It grows satisfactorily in gardens in most of Europe, such as Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Although an annual, it will persist in the garden from year to year through ready self-seeding.
Traditionally, borage was cultivated for culinary and medicinal uses, although today, commercial cultivation is mainly as an oilseed.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Borage by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
