Boraginaceae indigenae

The borage family in Belgium:
The Boraginaceae (borage family) occur in all around the world in temperate and tropical regions. The family is specially species-rich around the Mediterranean Sea. It is a quite diverse family in terms of habit, ranging from herbs, shrubs, and trees, to even some lianas. The leaves and/or stalks are often hairy. In Belgium, approximately one half of the species is indigenous while the other half is exotic.
In this project, we address the indigenous Boraginaceae. To this group belong many quite common plants such as blueweed (Echium vulgare) and several species of forget-me-not (Myosotis), Anchusa, hound’s tong (Cynoglossum), and lungwort (Pulmonaria), among others.

The Belgian Herbarium:
Meise Botanic Garden holds the largest herbarium collection of Belgian plant specimens. Each of these herbarium specimens has a label with valuable information such as the plant’s identification, and when, where, and who collected the plant. These specimens can be used in many domains of research, such as conservation, evolution, ecology and systematics. These data help us to better understand the plants of Belgium, their history and that of people who collected them. There are about 200,000 specimens in the Belgian Herbarium of the Meise Botanic Garden and we want to document them all! These data will then be made available online at www.botanicalcollections.be.

Keywords (Latin):
Belgium, Boraginaceae, Herbae, Hortus Botanicus Meise, Botanica.