Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Herbs, often with a basal leaf rosette, rarely woody shrubs, more or less covered with hairs each usually with a broad multicellular base; leaves alternate, sometimes first opposite, usually entire or rarely undulate to dentate, often petiolate at the base becoming sessile below the inflorescence.

Inflorescence a terminal thyrse with few to many monochasia, rarely only 1, each being often branched and with flowers either arranged in 2 rows or in a spiral around the central axis; flowers bisexual, usually regular; sepals 5, rarely to 8, more or less connate basally, persistent and usually accrescent; petals 5, fused into a tube and usually connate with the filaments, often with saccate protrusions or these rarely flattened as scales in the throat of the corolla tube each being in the centre of a petal and alternating with the anthers; stamens 5, alternate with the petals, with the anthers often ovoid and sometimes with a terminal appendage; ovary superior, entire, with a terminal style, or deeply 4-lobed, with the style inserted at various levels from the apex to the base, developed from 2 carpels but usually with 4 locules each with 1 basal ovule.

Fruit usually a schizocarp, i.e. a dry fruit which breaks into 4 broad mericarps each containing one seed leaving behind a part of the ovary in the form of a more or less developed central gynobase, sometimes indehiscent, rarely drupaceous.

Distribution:  About 110 genera and over 2,000 species found in most parts of the world but particularly well represented in the Mediterranean and western pans of America.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The Ehretiaceae are often treated separately but here they are included in the Boraginaceae. J. Black (1957) had followed Bentham (1868) by including Coldenia procumbens L. in the Flora of S. Aust. It has, however, been shown that Howitt's expedition must have collected the specimen along Cooper Creek in south-west Qld (cf. N. Burbidge (1963) Dictionary of Australian plant genera, p. 76).

Key to Genera:

1. Lower parts of the calyx with hooked hairs; mericarps shiny	MYOSOTIS 10.
1. Calyx without hooked hairs; mericarps variously sculptured but if smooth not shiny
2. Fruits entire, rarely with shallow ridges or grooves
3. Pedicels present, but if less than 3 mm then with glandular hairs
4. Woody shrubs or shrublets; hairs on leaves without a multi-cellular broad base	HALGANIA 8.
4. Herbaceous plants but often tough; hairs on leaves with a multicellular broad base	TRICHODESMA 14.
3. Pedicels 0-2 mm long	HELIOTROPIUM 9.
2. Fruits deeply 4-lobed.
5. Fruits with hooked spines or with a swollen rim around the compressed outer surface
6. Attachment scar on the mericarps from the lower third to the apex; gynobase slender and pointed (fig. 541B)	OMPHALOLAPPULA 12.
6. Attachment scar on the mericarps short, either below or above the middle; gynobase short and acute
7. Attachment scar of the mericarp between the middle and the upper third; rim around the outer surface of the mericarp thin and erect	CYNOGLOSSUM 5.
7. Attachment scar of the mericarp between the middle andthe lower third; rim around the outer surface swollen and/or incurved	EMBADIUM 7.
5. Fruit variously sculptured but without hooked hairs and/or a swollen rim around the outer surface
8. Mericarps with a rounded apex and vertical ridges; attachment scar basal and with a raised ridge around it	BORAGO 3.
8. Mericarps constricted at the apex into a beak or vertical ridge; attachment scar on the inside or if basal then without a raised ridge around it
9. Mericarps asymmetrical, with a raised vertical ridge on one side; attachment scar with a raised ridge around it	ANCHUSA 2.
9. Mericarps usually symmetrical; attachment scar without a raised ridge around it
10. Attachment scar on the inside, small, elliptic or lanceolate
11. Inflorescence recurved with flowers densely arranged in 2 rows	AMSINCKIA 1.
11. Inflorescence erect, with flowers widely spaced and spirally arranged around the central axis	PLAGIOBOTHRYS 13.
10. Attachment scar basal, broadly ovate to round
12. Mericarps densely tuberculate; fruiting monochasia with fruits widely spaced and spirally arranged around the central axis	BUGLOSSOIDES 4.
12. Mericarps with a few scattered tubercles to almost smooth; fruiting monochasia with fruits densely arranged more or less in 2 rows at least in the upper two-thirds
13. Leaves 2-5 mm broad	NEATOSTEMA 11.
13. Leaves 8-60 mm broad	ECHIUM 6.

Author: Prepared by H. R. Toelken; Heliotropium by L. A. Craven