Alpine Forget Me Not

Foodplant / spot causer
amphigenous colony of Ramularia hyphomycetous anamorph of Ramularia cerinthes causes spots on live leaf of Myosotis alpestris

Herbs perennial. Stems single, erect or cespitose, 20-45 cm tall, sparsely spreading strigose, sometimes cottony. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate, narrowly oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, to 8 cm × 5-12 mm, strigose, hairs discoid at base, base attenuate, decurrent into a wing, margin entire, apex rounded to ± acute; upper stem leaves sessile, smaller. Inflorescences to 15 cm after anthesis, ebracteate. Pedicel erect in fruit, 4-6 mm, densely short strigose. Calyx 1.5-2.5 mm, to 4-5 mm in fruit, parted nearly to base; lobes lanceolate, with densely spreading or hooked hairs, apex acuminate. Corolla blue; tube ca. 2.5 mm; throat appendages ca. 0.5 mm; limb 6-8 mm wide; lobes 5, orbicular, ca. 3.5 mm. Anthers elliptic, apex with an orbicular appendage. Nutlets dark brown, ovoid, ca. 2 × 1 mm, smooth, shiny, base without appendages, margin narrow. 2n = 14, 24, 30, 48, 70, 72.

Europe, C. Asia, Himalaya, Siberia.

3200 m

Forest margins, slopes, meadows. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, N India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe, North America].

Myosotis alpestris subsp. asiatica Vestergren ex Hulten; M. imitata Sergievskaja; M. suaveolens Waldstein & Kitaibel; M. sylvatica Ehrhart subsp. alpestris Koch.

Myosotis alpestris or alpine forget-me-not is a herbaceous perennial plant in the flowering plant family Boraginaceae.

The alpine forget-me-not is the county flower of Westmorland in the United Kingdom and the state flower of Alaska in the United States. It grows well throughout Alaska in open, rocky places high in the mountains, flowering in midsummer. It is also found throughout the Himalaya range at elevations of 3,000–4,300 m (9,800–14,100 ft). Native habitats include moist mountainous areas on wooded slopes and grassy meadows.