Myosotis discolor Pers.
grassland forget-me-not
Annual herb with 1-many, erect, hairy branches to c. 25 cm high. Lower lvs shortly petiolate or subsessile, to c. 5 × 1 cm, oblong to oblong-spathulate, densely covered in straight hairs; apex obtuse to acute; upper lvs similar but smaller. Cymes ebracteate, usually elongating to > leafy part of stem after flowering. Pedicels always < calyx. Calyx c. 3 mm long at anthesis, elongating to 4-5 mm and becoming closed at fruiting; tube with spreading, hooked hairs; lobes c. 1/2 length of calyx. Corolla limb 1.5-2.5 mm diam., yellow or cream, becoming blue; lobes entire, concave. Style = or > calyx. Nutlets 1.2-1.5 × 0.75-1 mm, ovoid, dark brown or black, with very narrow rim.
N.; S.: widely distributed, especially common in N. Auckland.
Europe 1879
Usually in fairly open, low-lying pasture.
FL Oct-Jan.
The sp. is illustrated in Fig. 42. M. discolor is easily distinguished from any other Myosotis sp. in N.Z. by the different corolla colours in one cyme, hence the alternative common name of yellow and blue forget-me-not. The sp. has previously been known in N.Z. as M. versicolor and was first recorded here as M. collina, a related European sp.
