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Cynoglossum lanceolatum
Also called Borage, Borages And Forget Me Nots, Forget Me Not Family, Manjack Family, Waterleaf
Cynoglossum lanceolatum is a much-branched biennial of the borage family, widely grown and harvested from the wild across Africa and Asia, and used as food and medicine. The entry covers this species; the family itself is large and mostly not grown as one group.
Cynoglossum lanceolatum Forssk. is closely related to and grades into Cynoglossum coeruleum Hochst. ex A.DC. It is a much-branched biennial plant, occurring widely with an anthropogenic distribution, harvested from the wild and used as both food and medicine. This species was first described by the Swede Peter Forsskål in 1775 in Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica 41.
Parts of the plant are used as a diaphoretic, a colic medicine for children, a diuretic expectorant, and as a febrifuge and vermifuge. A poultice made from crushed plant parts is applied to wounds by the Basuto, while the roots are used in the treatment of eye ailments. The plant is used in soup. Tests for bitters, alkaloid, volatile oil, hydrocyanic acid, saponin and triterpenoids have proven negative.
From Côte d'Ivoire to Ethiopia, south to South Africa, Madagascar, the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, eastward to China and Malaysia. Found from sea-level to 2500 meters.
Chinese hound's tongue · Australian Hound's Tongue · Borage Family · Blue Hound's Tongue · Green Hound's Tongue · Gypsyflower · Cynoglossum torvum · Ceylon Hound's Tongue · Hound's tongue
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cynoglossum lanceolatum 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.
