Plant Families: Bignoniaceae and Boraginaceae

Bright colors, aggressive vines and five o'clock shadows hold sway this week. Reds, oranges, yellows, blues and purples all blossom and bloom, decorating the landscape with festive abandon. Coiled tendrils unwind, grasping onto absolutely everything they fall across. Plants, hairier than my Uncle Paul, wear their flowers like gaudy costume jewelry. Many of these wildflowers, if not well known, are certainly recognizable by sight. Some even turn up in the garden.

So what are these, these hirsute plants, these plants that won't let go, these plants that flash us with bold colors, bugger the trench coat? They are members of the Trumpet Creeper Family (Bignoniaceae) and the Borage or Forget-me-not Family (Boraginaceae) (he said, downshifting to facts).

The Trumpet Creeper Family consists of tress, shrubs, and woody vines with the grip of a massage therapist. Clusters of large, showy flowers are typical. (Hummingbirds are enamored.) Mostly tropical, there are about 100 genera, which include over 600 species.

The clusters of flowers occur at the ends of branches, or at the axils. The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical and the corolla forms a funnel, like a bell or a, well, trumpet. The calyx is 5-lobed, as is the corolla, which is often 2-lipped. There are 2 to 4 stamens, and all these parts are attached at the base of the ovary.

The leaves are usually opposite, and simple or either pinnately or palmately compound. The fruit is a 2-valved capsule.

Cross-vine (Anisostichus capreolata), Indian Bean (Catalpa Catalpa), Catawba Tree (C. speciosa) and, of course, Trumpet-creeper (Bignonia radicans) are all members the family. All grow in woods and thickets, and their flowers give us shades of yellow and orange and red. Trumpet-creeper, which is often grown as part of the backyard landscape, has become overly aggressive in the south (...it did seem rather ubiquitous in North Carolina last year, now that I think about it...). It climbs with the help of aerial rootlets.

The Borage Family gives us shades of blue and purple in the form of Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare), Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), True Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides), Wild Comfrey (Cynoglossum virginianum) and Rough Comfrey (Symphymtum asperimum). Hairy Puccoon (Lithospermum caroliniense) and Hoary Puccoon (L. canescens) burst forth with gaudy orange flowers. And many members of the family, covered with bristly hairs, need a shave.

There are about 2,000 species in the family, in about 100 genera. They are mostly herbs.

Flowers are radially symmetrical, often clustered along one side of a branch, or at the tip of a coiled stem. There are 5 sepals, united at the base, 5 petals and 5 stamens. The petals are united, forming a narrow tube with a flared top. There are usually 5 small pads around the small entry into the tube. All these floral parts are attached near the base of the ovary.

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