Myosotis sylvatica
garden forget-me-not
Much-branched, biennial or short-lived perennial. Stems to c. 50 cm high, densely clothed in spreading hairs. Lower lvs usually elliptic-spathulate or obovate, less commonly ovate; lamina to c. 10 × 4 cm, often densely hairy; base attenuate to the indistinct petiole; apex obtuse, mucronulate. Upper lvs smaller and narrower. Cymes usually ebracteate, elongating after flowering. Pedicels 1.5-2× length of calyx at fruiting. Calyx 3-5 mm long, campanulate; tube with spreading, hooked hairs; teeth triangular or lanceolate, 1/2-3/4 length of tube. Corolla tube usually slightly > calyx tube; limb 6-11 mm diam., flat or nearly so, usually blue, rarely white; scales in throat yellow; lobes rounded. Style 1.5-2.3 mm long, > calyx tube. Nutlets c. 1.7-2 × 1 mm, ovoid, dark brown; rim present.
N.; S.: scattered throughout; St.; Ch.
Temperate Eurasia 1904
Usually as an escape from cultivation in waste places, scrub, plantations, forest margins, forest paths and roadside verges, especially in shade where it can be the dominant sp.; sometimes a troublesome weed in gardens.
FL Mar-Nov.
The sp. is illustrated in Fig. 42. In N.Z. this is the commonest Myosotis sp. in cultivation, and is usually simply called forget-me-not. N.Z. plants probably all belong to subsp. sylvatica, the usual subsp. cultivated in Europe.
