Why the Borage family is a botanical puzzle that refuses to stay put

Gardening · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The Boraginaceae family, home to forget-me-nots and borage, has long baffled taxonomists. Once grouped with mints, it has been shuffled between orders for decades. Today, this diverse family of over 2,700 species remains a moving target, with scientists still debating whether it is one large family or eleven distinct ones.

The taxonomy of Boraginaceae has been notoriously contentious. The classic Cronquist system once placed these plants within the order Lamiales, citing structural similarities to mints and vervains, such as deeply divided ovaries and fruits that break into four nutlets. However, modern research suggests these traits evolved independently. By 2009, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG III) opted to place the family within the lamiids clade without assigning it to a specific order, reflecting a lack of consensus regarding its evolutionary history.

The family is physically distinct, often characterized by hairy, herbaceous stems and leaves, and flower clusters that coil like a scorpion’s tail. Many species exhibit a fascinating color-shifting trick: as the flowers age, their petals change hue—from pink to blue or yellow to white—driven by shifts in the pH of their cellular fluids. While some members are garden favorites like lungwort and Virginia bluebell, others are parasitic, such as the rare, chlorophyll-lacking Lennooideae subfamily found in desert regions of Mexico and the southwestern United States.

The debate continues into the present day. While the 2016 APG IV system classified Boraginaceae as the sole family in the order Boraginales, a concurrent revision proposed splitting it into 11 separate families. This tension between 'sensu lato' (the broad, traditional view) and 'sensu stricto' (the narrow, modern view) persists, with different botanical databases currently accepting varying numbers of genera. Whether viewed as a single, sprawling family or a collection of distinct lineages, Boraginaceae remains a subject of intense study, bridging the gap between common garden ornamentals and complex, parasitic desert flora.

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