MYOSOTIS RAMOSISSIMA

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Early forget-me-not

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Myosotis (Gr) Mouse-ear, A name used by the Greek physician and

botanist Dioscorides.

Ramosissima (L) Greatly branched, branching.

General description:- Slender, erect annual.

Stem:-

a) Up to 40 cm.

b) with spreading (patent) soft hairs at the base, above with, straight hairs lying

close and flat (appressed).

Leaves:-

1) Lower:

a) oblanceolate to oblong.

b) with soft, erecto-patent, straight hairs on both sides.

c) lower part of the stem with patent hairs.

Flower:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) lax, without bracts (ebracteate).

b) occupying more than half of plant.

c) axis appressed-pubescent.

d) fruiting pedicels patent, equalling or slightly shorter than the calyx.

2) Calyx:

a) up to 4 mm in fruit.

b) with patent to deflexed, hooked hairs on the tube and straight hairs on the

lobes.

3) Corolla:

a) limb 2-4 mm in diam.

b) saucer-shaped.

c) pale to bright blue.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) 1·2 x 0·7 mm.

b) ovoid, acute, without a rim.

c) attachment scar elliptical. usually filled with spongy tissue.

d) olive brown.

Key features:-

1) Stem straight, with regularly spaced flowers.

2) Fruiting pedicels shorter than or equalling the calyx.

3) Corolla limb 2-4 mm in diam.

Habitat:- Sandy flats. pastures, low open scrubland, field margins and in a variety

of other dry, open habitats. 0-1500 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Most of Europe and the Mediterranean region,

eastwards to Iran. Fairly widely spread across the central regions of Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-June

Photos by:- By kind permission of Saxifraga - Free Nature Images