Field Forget-me-not

The tiny grey-blue flowers of the Field Forget-me-not appear in March or April.  There are native and cultivated forms of this plant.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Myosotis arvensis
Family: 
Borages
Family Latin name: 
BORAGINACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants

Species description

Species description

The tiny grey-blue flowers appear in March or April. There are native and cultivated forms of this plant. They are low, short and very hairy-leaved plants that have small flowers with five blue-grey petals with yellow centres.

Forget-me-nots were worn by lovers in France (ne m'oubliez pas) to ensure that they would not forget each other if parted.

Syrups made from forget-me-nots are traditionally given for lung complaints.

The Cemetery has two types of Forget-me-nots, and we know this from surveys conducted by a botanist. There is this one, the Field Forget-me-not, and another, the Wood Forget-me-not. To the inexperienced eye, it can be difficult to tell them apart. The problem is compounded by the fact that there are perhaps a dozen different forget-me-nots in Britain (although the alpine and water versions can easily be discounted from the Cemetery), and of these there are cultivars and hybrids.

In simple terms, the Wood Forget-me-not has bright sky-blue flowers that are usually 6 - 10mm across. These are carried on much-branched stems that can rise to 45cms. They flower slightly later than the Field Forget-me-nots, from May to June. In contrast, the Field Forget-me-not has smaller, bright blue-grey flowers that are usually 3 - 5mm across. These are carried on stems that branch mainly at the base that can rise to 30cms. Field Forget-me-nots can flower from March to September.

In our experience, the important differences between the two species are the stem-branching characteristics, the height and the flowering season. Differences in colour are very difficult to use as a diagnostic feature!

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

The plants in this family are noted for their being edged with coarse hairs. The flowers often start pink and turn blue, and are usually in one-sided stalked spikes, which at first are tightly coiled.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.