BORAGINACEAE BORAGE FAMILY 
COMMON HOUND’S TONGUE 
Cynoglossum officinale L. 
Favorite haunts of the Hound’s Tongue seem to be old pastures 
but it occurs in other fields and waste places as well. Though 
sometimes a troublesome weed it can be killed if cut below the 
surface of the ground. It was intro- 
duced into this country from Europe 
and is distributed from Quebec to 
Manitoba and Montana, south to Kan- 
sas, Alabama and South Carolina. 
This is a biennial which in the first 
year produces only a rosette of leaves 
and a strong root. In the second year 
a stout branched stem arises 1-3 feet 
high and leafy to the top. Basal and 
lower leaves are 6-12 inches long, 1-3 
inches wide and on slender petioles. 
Pretty, though not very conspicu- 
ous, and disagreeably odored flowers 
are produced from May to September. 
The green calyx is 5-lobed and becomes 
enlarged and spreading in fruit. The 
corolla is reddish purple or very rarely 
white. It is somewhat funnel shaped 
but the tube is short and its throat is 
closed by 5 scales, 1 opposite each of the 
rounded lobes. The 5 stamens with 
short filaments and oblong anthers are 
attached to the corolla and included 
within its tube. The ovary is deeply 4- 
lobed and separates into 4 _ single- 
seeded nutlets in fruit, the style arising 
from between them. 
The nutlets are covered with short 
barbed prickles that cling readily to the fur or wool of animals. 
The Wild Comfrey, Cynoglossum virginianum L., is the other and 
perennial species in Illinois. This is a conspicuous woodland plant, 
roughish with spreading bristly hairs, whose flowering stems, 1 )4-2%4 
feet tall, bear few small leaves and 2-6 racemes of pale blue flowers 
on long naked peduncles. The prickly nutlets are about three-eighths 
of an inch long and they separate and fall off at maturity. 
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