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Portrait of Water forget-me-not

Nature · Wildflowers & flowers

Water forget-me-not

Native · flowers Jun–Sep · stream, ditch and pond margins

Myosotis scorpioides — Boraginaceae

A sprawling, sky-blue plant of shallow water, marsh and stream edges. Its curled flower spikes give the species its Latin name, and a romantic legend of a drowning knight is said to lie behind the family's English one. It grows in marshes, fens, riverbanks and pond margins throughout Britain.

How to spot them

  • ▸Sky-blue flowers with five petals and a bright yellow eye
  • ▸Flower spikes coiled like a scorpion's tail at the tip, uncoiling as the flowers open
  • ▸Narrow, oblong, slightly hairy leaves on sprawling stems (the Wildlife Trusts give a height up to about 12 cm)
  • ▸Grows in water or on wet mud at the edge of streams, ditches and ponds
  • ▸Look-alike: field and wood forget-me-nots are plants of dry ground with smaller flowers; wet ground is the clue for this one

How to know it

Sky-blue, yellow-eyed flowers along a spike curled like a scorpion's tail, growing at the edge of a ditch or stream

Water forget-me-not, Myosotis scorpioides.

Its Latin species name means 'like a scorpion', for the coiled flower spike

Water forget-me-not.

The genus name means 'mouse's ear', for the small, soft leaves

Myosotis — water forget-me-not.

Coleridge's poem 'The Keepsake' is the likely source of the common name, referring to a legend about a knight who plucked blue flowers by a river

Water forget-me-not, as told by the Wildlife Trusts.

A blue-flowered member of the borage family, growing with its feet in shallow water in fens, marshes and pond margins

Water forget-me-not, Boraginaceae.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Family Boraginaceae, the borage family, which has rough, hairy leaves and coiled flower spikes
  • •Wildlife Trusts: flowers June to September, found in marshes, fens, riverbanks and pond margins throughout Britain and Northern Ireland
  • •The Wildlife Trusts trace the name 'forget-me-not' to Coleridge's poem 'The Keepsake', after a German legend of a knight who drowned in a river calling the words to his love
  • •Myosotis is Greek for 'mouse's ear'; scorpioides means 'scorpion-like'
  • •Supports pollinators with its summer blooms and provides cover at the edges of ponds and streams
  • •A popular plant for pond margins, so garden-origin plants also turn up in the wild
  • •Native

Drill it — 6 cards

1 / 6new card

Sources