Borage (scientific name: Borago officinalis) is an annual herbaceous plant with a slight cucumber-like fragrance. Native to the eastern Mediterranean coast and Asia Minor, it is now widely cultivated in Europe and North America. It can be used as a honey plant, with its fresh leaves consumed as a vegetable in Europe. Both fresh and dried leaves are also used to flavor stews, soups, and beverages. Borage can grow up to 120 cm in height. Its leaves are alternate, rough like cucumber leaves, and petiolate. It blooms in July, producing blue flowers in loose, leafy cymes with long stalks. The fruit is a small nutlet, smooth or with papillary projections.