(Borago officinalis) Herb X; Seed oil: G
Folk Names: Bugloss, Burrage, Herb of Gladness, Star Flower, Borak, Lisan selvi, Lesan-El-Tour
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Jupiter
Element: Air
Powers: Courage, Psychic Powers
Magickal Uses: Carry the fresh blossoms to strengthen your courage, or place one in your buttonhole for protection when walking outdoors.
A tea of borage induces psychic powers.
[From: Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs]
[From Alchemy Works website]
Borago officinalis - Borage
This bold magick herb ruled by Jupiter and Leo was eaten for courage by Roman soldiers before they went into battle. Medieval knights wore scraves embroidered with the flowers for the same reason. Pliny said that borage-flavored wine was the Nepenthe of Homer, which when drunk brings forgiveness. In Elizabethan England, it was considered to lift melancholy; according to Culpeper, borage expells pensiveness and melancholy, and the candied or jellied flowers comfort the heart and spirits of those who are sick from consumption or from the passions of the heart. Gerard recommended eating this herb in a salad for joy and said that a syrup made of the flowers "purgeth melancholy and quieteth the phreneticke and lunaticke person." A contemporary commented that the flowers also "cheer the hard student." In Hoodoo, borage flowers in the house help bring about domestic tranquility. The flowers sprinkled in the bath are good for courage or for Jovian protection, and a cup of borage tea can help with feelings of vulnerability and disjointedness. Logically enough because of its connections to Jupiter, this herb is associated with the Hierophant in the tarot deck. This big, rough herb with its very blue flowers is great for cottage and herb gardens.
Mundane Uses
Borage has been cultivated since at least 1440 in Castille, Spain, in herb and ornamental gardens, and was brought to Europe by the Moors (it originated in Aleppo, Syria). It has been grown in the New World since 1494 and is naturalized throughout Europe, North and South America, and parts of Asia. The name "borage" comes from the Arabic name for this plant, abu arak, "father of sweat" because it induces sweating, which can be good if you have a cold coming on. In the Mexican botanical medicine formulary, a tincture for sweating consists of equal parts of red poppy petals, borage petals, elder flowers, and violet flowers. But the Celtic name for it, barrach, means "man of courage" and obviously focuses on borage's psychological effects. Borage is also known as tailwort, bee's bread, and starflower.
The fresh young leaves are good for salads, although many people dislike the fuzzy texture (and some people are sensitive to the hairs on the bigger leaves). The leaves are good for special effects - they spark and pop when they are burned due to their mineral content. Both the leaves and the pretty blue flowers smell and taste like cucumber. A tea of borage flowers and mint is especially cooling in the summer. Try freezing the flowers in an ice cube for a nice garnish to iced tea, especially if you have a suitor. According to folklore, if the person drinking the tea is someone you would like to marry, it will give them the courage to propose.:) The flowers will keep their color if dried carefully and are nice in pot pourri. The flowers are also a traditional garnish for summer drinks containing alcohol. Steep dried borage and rosemary in white wine for two weeks: "To drinketh wine imbued with the floures of borage is to increase his countenance and bringeth courage to the weak." You can also make a beautiful vinegar from white wine vinegar and borage flowers (add some of the leaves for extra flavor), and the flowers make a blue dye that turns pink with the addition of acid. It is okay to use this herb as a condiment, but don't eat large amounts on a regular basis, as it contains alkaloids believed to harm the liver in large amounts - the same ones as in comfrey, although it has only 5% of the alkaloids comfrey does. If you have a tender liver from past damage, don't use it. The oil of the seeds doesn't contain this alkaloid; I can attest that borage seed oil is great to add to your food if you have problems with dry eyes.
Barely cover the seeds of this hardy annual to germinate in 7-14 days at room temp, or you can direct sow them in well cultivated soil May-June. Transplant to 12"/31cm apart to full sun, although it can grow in partial shade. It loves clay. This plant gets 3ft/.9m tall and 12"/31cm wide. Borage is a good companion plant for tomatoes, squash, and strawberries. Plant borage in a bunch so the plants can support each other - they can flop over in windy areas. Borage gets a taproot, so is good for breaking up previously uncultivated soils. Bees love the flowers, which have a lot of nectar. The flowers are normally blue, but sometimes they will be pink, even on the same plant. An occasional plant will have white flowers. Self-seeds when happy. General growing info
http://www.alchemy-works.com/
Overview:
Borage is a freely seeding, easy growing annual plant with vivid blue flowers and leaves with the flavor of cucumbers. It is consider an herb, but is often grown in vegetable gardens where it attracts pollinating bees and is considered a good companion plant for tomatoes, squash and strawberries. It’s even supposed to deter tomato hornworms and improve the flavor of tomatoes growing nearby.
Borago officinalis
Common Name: Borage
USDA Hardiness Zone:
Annual, but self-seeds readily.
Exposure:
Full sun
Mature Size:
H: 18 - 36" (45 - 90cm), W: 9 - 24" (22 - 60cm)
Bloom Period:
Late Spring to Mid-Summer
Description:
Borage is actually a somewhat gangly plant, but you barely notice it because the star-shaped flowers are so vibrant. They’re a true blue, hanging in downward facing clusters. Even the fussy white buds are attractive. Both the flowers and the leaves are edible, with a cucumber-like flavor. Use the leaves while they are young, because as the plant matures, the stalks and leaves become covered with a prickly fuzz.
Design Suggestions:
As mentioned above, borage is often grown in the vegetable or herb garden because it is such a bee magnet and because it is considered a good growing companion for other plants. However, it is equally beautiful in a cottage style flower garden, where it has room to self-seed. Harvesting or deadheading will keep it in bloom longer.
Suggested Varieties:
Borago officinalis is the only borage I have seen offered by seed companies.
Growing Tips:
Borage grows best if direct seeded. Barely cover the seeds with soil and keep well watered. They are tolerant of any type soil, even poor dry soil. However a sunny location with rich, well draining soil is optimal.
If you choose to start seedlings, transplant before they become pot bound. Plan to start seedlings about 3-4 weeks before the last expected frost and don’t transplant outdoors until the soil has warmed.
Once seedling are about 2-3" tall, thin to approximately 12" apart.
Maintenance: Plants in poor soil will benefit from periodic feeding with any fertilizer labeled for use on edible plants. Something with a high phosphorous number (the middle number on a fertilizer package) will help keep them in flower. Plants can be pinched or pruned, to encourage branching and to keep them shorter.
Harvesting: Harvest leaves and flowers as needed. Older leaves will get prickly, making harvesting anything on the plant a bit unpleasant. However, the flowers do add a bit of flavor and a great deal of color to salads, soups, dips & spreads, open face sandwiches, beverages and ice cubes. As with all edible flowers, use sparingly until you know how they effect you. Borage is said to have a mild laxative effect.
Borage is open pollinated and it is very easy to collect and save the seed from flowers allowed to remain on the plant and turn brown. Borage self-seeds readily, if allowed to go to seed naturally. Excess plants are fairly easy to remove from the garden.
Pest & Problems: Virtually problem free.
From: http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/borage66.html
---Synonym---Burrage.
---Habitat---The Common Borage is a hardy annual plant coming originally from Aleppo but now naturalized in most parts of Europe and frequently found in this country, though mostly only on rubbish heaps and near dwellings, and may be regarded as a garden escape. It has long been grown freely in kitchen gardens, both for its uses as a herb and for the sake of its flowers, which yield excellent honey.
Description---The whole plant is rough with white, stiff, prickly hairs. The round stems, about 1 1/2 feet high, are branched, hollow and succulent; the leaves alternate, large, wrinkled, deep green, oval and pointed, 3 inches long or more, and about 1 1/2 inch broad, the lower ones stalked, with stiff, one celled hairs on the upper surfaces and on the veins below, the margins entire, but wavy. The flowers, which terminate the cells, are bright blue and star-shaped, distinguished from those of every plant in this order by their prominent black anthers, which form a cone in the centre and have been described as their beauty spot. The fruit consists of four brownish-black nutlets.
---History---In the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were still sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the young leaves were formerly considered good in salads.
The fresh herb has a cucumber-like fragrance. When steeped in water, it imparts a coolness to it and a faint cucumber flavour, and compounded with lemon and sugar in wine, and water, it makes a refreshing and restorative summer drink. It was formerly always an ingredient in cool tankards of wine and cider, and is still largely used in claret cup.
Our great grandmothers preserved the flowers and candied them.
Borage was sometimes called Bugloss by the old herbalists, a name that properly belongs to Anchusa officinalis, the Alkanet, the Small Bugloss being Lycopsis arvensis, and Viper's Bugloss being the popular name for Echium vulgare.
Some authorities consider that the Latin name Borago, from which our popular name is taken, is a corruption of corago, from cor, the heart, and ago, I bring, because of its cordial effect.
In all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, where it is plentiful, it is spelt with a double 'r,' so the word may be derived from the Italian borra, French bourra, signifying hair or wool, words which in their turn are derived from the Low Latin burra, a flock of wool, in reference to the thick covering of short hairs which clothes the whole plant.
Henslow suggests that the name is derived from barrach, a Celtic word meaning 'a man of courage.'
---Cultivation---Borage flourishes in ordinary soil. It may be propagated by division of rootstocks in spring and by putting cuttings of shoots in sandy soil in a cold frame in summer and autumn, or from seeds sown in fairly good, light soil, from the middle of March to May, in drills 18 inches apart, the seedlings being thinned out to about 15 inches apart in the rows. If left alone, Borage will seed itself freely and comes up year after year in the same place. Seeds may also be sown in the autumn. Those sown then will flower in May, whereas those sown in the spring will not flower till June.
---Part Used Medicinally---The leaves, and to a lesser extent, the flowers. Gather the leaves when the plant is coming into flower. Strip them off singly and reject any that are stained and insect-eaten. Pick only on a fine day, when the sun has dried off the dew.
---Constituents---Borage contains potassium and calcium, combined with mineral acids. The fresh juice affords 30 per cent, the dried herb 3 per cent of nitrate of potash. The stems and leaves supply much saline mucilage, which when boiled and cooked likewise deposits nitre and common salt. It is to these saline qualities that the wholesome invigorating properties of Borage are supposed to be due. Owing to the presence of nitrate of potash when burnt, it will emit sparks with a slight explosive sound.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Diuretic, demulcent, emollient. Borage is much usedin France for fevers and pulmonary complaints. By virtue of its saline constituents, it promotes the activity of the kidneys and for this reason is employed to carry off feverish catarrhs. Its demulcent qualities are due to the mucilage contained in the whole plant.
For internal use, an infusion is made of 1 OZ of leaves to 1 pint of boiling water, taken in wineglassful doses.
Externally, it is employed as a poultice for inflammatory swellings.
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