''Anchusa officinalis'', commonly known as the common bugloss or alkanet, is a plant species in the genus ''

Anchusa The genus ''Anchusa'' belongs to the borage family (Boraginaceae). It includes about 35 species found growing in Europe, North Africa, South Africa and Western Asia. They are introduced in the United States. They consist of annual plants, bie ...

''. The plant provides a great deal of

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

for

pollinators A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are the maj ...

. It was rated in the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative.

Photo gallery

File:Anchusa officinalis.jpg, Macro view of ''Anchusa officinalis'' File:Anchusa officinalis inflorescence - Kulna.jpg, Flowers File:Common Bugloss in early June.JPG, Anchusa officinalis in the

UBC Botanical Garden UBC Botanical Garden, at the University of British Columbia, was established in 1916 under the directorship of John Davidson, British Columbia's first provincial botanist. It is the oldest botanical garden at a university in Canada. The garden me ...

. File:Anchusa-officinalis-and-bee.jpg, Bumblebee hovers next to a stalk of a ''Anchusa officinalis'' plant.

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officinalis ''Officinalis'', or ''officinale'', is a Medieval Latin epithet denoting organisms—mainly plants—with uses in medicine, herbalism and cookery. It commonly occurs as a specific epithet, the second term of a two-part botanical name. ''Officinali ...

Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Asterid-stub