MYOSOTIS RAMOSISSIMA

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Early forget-me-not

Homotypic 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:-

1) Up to 40 cm. with patent soft hairs at the base, above with, straight appressed

hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, oblanceolate to oblong, with soft, erecto-patent, straight hairs on both

sides. lower part of the petiole with patent hairs.

Flower:-

1) Inflorescence, lax, ebracteate, occupying more than half of the plant.

a) axis, appressed-pubescent.

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

2) Calyx, up to 4 mm in fruit, with patent to deflexed, hooked hairs on the tube and

straight hairs on the lobes.

3) Corolla, saucer-shaped, pale to bright blue.

a) limb, 2-4 mm in diam.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, 1·2 x 0·7 mm, ovoid, acute, without a rim, attachment scar elliptical.

usually filled with spongy tissue, 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.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

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