Herbs perennial, biennial, or annual, less often lianas, shrubs, or trees, usually bristly or scabrous-pubescent. Leaves simple, exstipulate, alternate, rarely opposite, entire or serrate at margin. Inflorescences often double scorpioid cymes, rarely solitary; bracts present or absent. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic. Calyx usually 5-parted or lobed, mostly persistent. Corolla tubular, campanulate, rotate, funnelform, or salverform; tube appendages 5, rarely more, mostly trapeziform, rarely absent, sometimes a ring of hairs present; limb usually 5-parted; lobes overlapping, rarely twisted in bud. Stamens 5, inserted on corolla tube or rarely at throat, included or rarely exserted; anthers introrse, 2-loculed, usually dorsifixed at base, less often medifixed, dehiscence longitudinal. Nectaries at base of corolla tube or on disc below ovary. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate; locules 2 and each with 2 ovules, or 4 and each with 1 ovule; ovules nearly atropous, semianatropous, or anatropous. Style terminal or gynobasic, branched or not. Gynobase flat, fastigiate, or subulate. Fruit 1-4-seeded drupes or nutlets (mericarps); nutlets mostly dry, often ornamented with wings, prickles and/or glochids (stiff bristles with barbed or anchorlike tips). Seeds vertical or oblique, coat membranous; embryo straight, less often curved; cotyledons flat, fleshy.

About 156 genera and 2500 species: temperate and tropical regions, centered in the Mediterranean region; 47 genera and 294 species in China, of which four genera and 156 species are endemic.

Anchusa italica Retzius, A. officinalis Linnaeus, and Borago officinalis Linnaeus are cultivated. Borago officinalis is uncommon and not naturalized, and because its seeds contain quality oil, it is probably more commonly grown than previously.

Wang Wen-tsai, Liu Yu-lan, Zhu Ge-ling, Lian Yong-shan, Wang Jing-quan & Wang Qing-rui in Kung Xian-wu & Wang Wen-tsai, eds. 1989. Boraginaceae. Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 64(2): 1-253.

(Authors: Zhu Ge-lin; Harald Riedl, Rudolf Kamelin)