Water forget-me-not - Myosotis scorpioides

• Add to Pick List
• Back to search results

Water forget-me-not - Myosotis scorpioides
© Dr Chris Gibson/English Nature

The sky-blue flowers of the lovely water forget-me-not have a central yellow eye and are tinged pink when in bud. They open in sequence from a curled raceme of flower buds, which resembles the tail of a scorpion - hence the species name scorpiodes meaning 'like a scorpion'. The stems carry oblong, hairy leaves. These start out creeping and then become erect. This plant is found partly submerged in or beside fresh water but also grows in marshes and fens. It makes an ideal plant for pond margins or a bog garden.

The name forget-me-not supposedly comes from a German folk-tale. A drowning knight picked a bunch of these flowers and threw them to his beloved, crying out as he did so 'Vergiss mein nicht'.

Like other wetland plants, water forget-me-not offers resting places for aquatic winged insects such as caddis flies and alder flies. It also has nectar and pollen for bees.

Animals

Flies, Honey bee

Foliage	Green
Flower	Blue, May to September
Moisture	(Average)
Sunlight	(Full sun)
Origin	Native