Twelve photographs showing the diversity of flowers and nutlets in Cynoglossinae. Top row (a–d): Blue to red flowers of Cynoglossum amabile, C. creticum, C. dioscoridis, and Lindelofia stylosa. Middle row (e–h): Red to pale flowers and fruiting structures of Paracaryum rugulosum, Rindera lanata, Solenanthus apenninus, and S. circinatus. Bottom row (i–l): Diverse nutlet morphology in C. creticum, S. circinatus, Paracaryum cyclhymenium, and inflated calyces of R. lanata. Photos highlight variation in corolla color, hairiness, fruit shape, and dispersal structures across the clade.

Time-calibrated phylogeny of Boraginaceae subtribes, including Microulinae, Amsinkininae, Bothriosperminae, and Cynoglossinae, with ancestral area reconstruction. Color-coded circles at nodes represent inferred ancestral ranges across global biogeographic regions (e.g., Irano-Turanian, Mediterranean, East Asia). The tree is divided into three major clades, with Clade III containing most Cynoglossum species. Inset maps show reconstructed dispersal pathways from the Irano-Turanian region to Europe, Africa, and beyond. A color key explains regional codes (A–F), and global map at top right shows their geographic extent.

🎓PhD student M. Pourghorban leads this new study tracing the evolutionary history of #Cynoglossum
🌍 Turns out: the genus originated in the Irano-Turanian region and spread westward

A @humboldt-foundation.de funded 🇮🇷🇩🇪 collab, now out in Cladistics: 📄 doi.org/10.1111/cla....

#Boraginales #IranFlora

3-14-25
Texas baby blue eyes
(Nemophila phacelioides)
Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site, TX

#tx #texas #nature #nikon #nikond7500 #photography #naturephotography #botany #petals #Nemophila #Boraginaceae #Boraginales #Asterids #Wildlife #wildlifephotography #flowers #plants

A honey bee collects nectar from the densely packed pink flowers of Echium wildpretii. The tubular blossoms are arranged along a tall inflorescence covered in fine hairs, with greenhouses reflecting in the background.

A row of tall Echium wildpretii plants growing along a greenhouse wall at the Bonn Botanic Garden. The plants have silver-gray rosettes and striking pink flower spikes, all in full bloom under a sunny sky.

🌺 #Echium wildpretii .. from 🌋Tenerife to #Bonn!

Our garderns tested overwintering under climate change—most plants survived ❄️🌱 Now buzzing with pollinators 🐝

#BonnBotanicGardens #ClimateChange #Botany

📄 More on the evolution of #Boraginales in our new paper in Ann. Bot.: doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

First comprehensive #phylogenomic study of #Boraginales. So excited to see this out at last. #UniBonn #morphology

With @petermoonlight.bsky.social

➡️ doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

An updated phylogeny of Boraginales based on the Angiosperms353 probe set: a roadmap for understanding morphological evolution AbstractBackground and Aims. Boraginales, a subcosmopolitan order with ~2,700 species in currently 11 families, has seen fluctuating classification at the

🌱The Angiosperms353 probe set proved incredibly powerful. This study lays the foundation for deeper morphological studies, promising new insights into the macroevolutionary trajectories of Boraginales. (8/8)

👉 doi.org/pgvm

#PlantScience #Botany #Boraginales

Bonus #Boraginales post: #Ehretiaceae are sister to #Cordiaceae, but Ehretiaceae lack a stylar compitum, the common transmission tissue that allows the pollen tube from any stigma to get to any ovule in either carpel within the ovary. This is Ehretia microphylla. #botany 🌱🧪🌾 #TropicalBotany

Photo of a hand holding a leafy branch. At the nexus of several small branches, the stem is slightly swollen. Leaves are simple, alternate and elliptical. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Cordia alliodora (#Cordiaceae) of the Neotropics has swollen nodes where branches originate. This area is hollow & makes a nice home for narrow-headed #ants of the Azteca pittieri complex. The ants defend trees against herbivores in exchange for housing. #Boraginales #mutualism #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Photo of a cluster of vivid orange, funnel-shaped flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

#Cordiaceae are woody. The styles are often twice branched & have capitate stigmas. The fruits are drupes, surrounded by a persistent, accrescent calyx. This is Cordia sebestena, a showy, small tree from the Caribbean and surrounding mainlands. #Boraginales #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌱🧪🌾

Close-up photo of a scorpioid cyme with yellow, 5-lobed, rotate flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

#Heliotropiaceae include Heliotropium + 3 other genera. They are vegetatively like #Boraginaceae with similar flowers, but the style is terminal and the stigmatic head is enlarged. This is Heliotropium polyphyllum. #Boraginales #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Photo of a leafy shoot with a terminal branched inflorescence bearing pale lavender flowers. The leaves are large and elliptical with serrate, undulate margins. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Wigandia urens (#Namaceae) is a Meso-American, weedy shrub or small tree. The warning is in the epithet: urens means stinging. This plant has stinging hairs AND causes severe allergic contact dermatitis. #Boraginales #TropicalBotany #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Close-up photo of a small herb growing in gaps between asphalt and concrete paving. Solitary, tiny, white, tubular flowers are visible among the leaves. A US penny is there for scale. The flower is one-tenth the diameter of the penny. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

The #Namaceae are herbs to small trees, the styles are terminal & branched, often to the base, & stigmas are capitate. The fruit is a septicidal capsule. This is Nama jamaicensis, a widespread Neotropical weed with tiny flowers. #Boraginales #TropicalBotany #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Photo of masses of small, lavender flowers with rotate corollas and filaments with hairs. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

The #Hydrophyllaceae are an American group that includes familiar herbs like Nemophila & Phacelia. They have terminal styles and “elaborations” on the bases of the filaments. I must give the filaments a closer look next time. 🧐 📷: Phacelia bipinnatifida of e. USA. #Boraginales #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Photo of a cluster of yellow, tubular flowers with 5-lobed corollas. In some, the flowers are all yellow, but in others, there are 5 black spots at the sinuses of the corolla lobes. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

#Boraginaceae have some interesting floral biology. In some, the flower color change (blue/pink) signals to pollinators that flowers have already been visited. The flowers of Huynhia pulchra lose (or gain? Can anyone confirm?) spots with age. #Boraginales #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Photo of a dense, terminal inflorescence bearing blue flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of the scorpioid cyme of borage and its blue, downward-facing flower with a cone of dark stamens. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of a scorpioid cyme of creamy white, downward-facing flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

#Boraginaceae s.s. are hairy herbs, the 2-carpellate ovary is deeply 4-lobed, the style is gynobasic, & the fruit usually has 4 nutlets that may be ornamented with hooks or prickles. Some familiar examples: 1. Echium candicans. 2. Borago officinalis. 3. Onosma nana. #Boraginales #botany 🌱🧪🌾

Photo of a plant with long, spiraling inflorescences that bear small creamy flowers on one side (the upper side) of the curling inflorescence. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

#Boraginaceae s.l. are a large, heterogeneous family. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website ver. 14 splits it into several families (other authors treat these as tribes of one family). They all have those crazy, curly scorpioid cymes. 📷: Tournefortia staminea #Boraginales #botany 🌱🧪🌾