SERIES: Medicinal Plants from My Garden – Borage (Borago Officianalis)

The fifth species in this little series of delicate and detailed watercolour paintings featuring common garden plants with unexpected medicinal properties is beautiful Borage.

Steeped in rich folklore and symbolism, the brilliant blue, starry Borage flowers are so named after a corruption of the Latin ‘corago’: cor – heart and ‘ago’ – I lead.

They became a symbol for courage as womenfolk would embroider them on scarves and handkerchiefs and present them to warriors before battle. Apparently, (in the name of its courage-promoting properties) Roman soldiers consumed Borage wine before going off to battle.

Today we know it as an edible, lightly cucumber-flavoured plant and recently, it’s been discovered that the consumption of its stem, leaves and flowers can assist in the treatment of many ailments but most notably hormonal adrenal insufficiency. So maybe the Romans did know what they were doing after all…