Forget Me Not(Myosotis scorpioides L.) (Myosotis palustris)

Family: Boraginaceae

Genus: Myosotis (my-oh-SO-tis) Means mouse ear referring to the shape of the individual petals.

Species: scorpioides (skor-pee-OY-dees) Means scorpion and refers to coiled shape of the plant. It is sometimes spelled scorpoides.

Forget Me Not

Other names include: common forget-me-not, water forget me not, forget-me-not, true forget me not, true forget-me-not, water forget-me-not and mermaid.

Forget me not is a non-native evergreen short lived perennial which loves water and grows 20 to 60 cm high and spread 22 to 30 cm near or across the top of the water.

In Altona Forest it grows beside and sometimes in Petticoat Creek near the parking lot where it gets semi-shade and full sunlight. It requires consistently moist soil.

Forget Me Not

The leaves are long, willow-like, narrow and alternate. They are attached directly to the stem and have pointed or rounded tips with a prominent mid-vein. It is often in leaf all year.

The stem has hairs which are appressed above and may be spreading or appressed below. They are weak, often bent at the base and branched. It has creeping horizontal stems called stolons at the plant base which can give rise to roots.

Forget-Me-Not

The tiny, blue, short-stalked flowers with a yellow center, are located along the upper end of the stem and are arranged along the outside of the coiled stem tip. The flowers unfurl in a "fiddlehead" fashion. The hairs on the calyx appressed, not spreading or hooked.  The petals are slightly notched at tip. 

They are hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs) and are pollinated by bees, flies, moths and butterflies. The diameter of the flower is 4-15 mm. The base of the 5 blue petals forms a tube less than or equal to length of the petal lobes. They bloom from May to September showing brightly against the otherwise green banks of Petticoat Creek.

Forget-Me-Not

Blue flowers have a yellow centre. Leaves are lance shaped and about 3 to 9 cm long.

Forget-Me-Not

The centre is not always yellow.

Forget-Me-Not

Forget-Me-Not

Forget Me Not

Reproduction is by seeds but new plants also form at the nodes of creeping stolons.

The fruit is small (<2 mm), shiny, brown to black "nutlets" in clusters of 4 per flower which ripen from July to September.

The roots are fibrous and spread out from the plant.

Forget Me Not

Forget me not has been used in the treatment of whooping cough and bronchitis. Some 1st Nations people used the flowers of one variety as a "love charm." Historically, it was used by other cultures to treat dog or snake bites.

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