Chinese Forget-Me-Not is a biennial herb reaching around a foot in height,
with dark greyish-green pointed leaves and rounded bright blue flowers.
Flower are intense blue, the limb 1 cm wide; tube 2.5 mm long,
the throat with retuse finely papillose bosses. Petals are rounded, about 4
mm in diameter. Sepal-cup is about 3 mm long, densely velvet-hairy; sepals
oblong-elliptic to ovate, 2 mm long, just over 1 mm wide, becoming
more ovate and somewhat accrescent and 3 x 2 mm.
Basal leaves long
petiolate, gray-green, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5-20 cm, densely
pubescent. Stem leaves are stalkless, gray-green, oblong to lanceolate,
2-7 cm. Although its common name is Chinese Forget-me-Not, it is a much
coarser plant with larger and brighter blue flowers than the
Forget-Me-Not we are familiar with. The
seeds and seedpods are also more like those of wild Cynoglossum officinale
(Hound's Tongue), with the five large seeds covered in velcro-like hooks so
that they will stick to animals or birds to be dispersed. Chinese
Forget-Me-Not is native to East Himalaya, Nepal, Thailand, Tibet, China.
Identification credit: Tabish
Photographed in Maraam, Manipur.
• Is this flower misidentified?
If yes,
Your name: Your email: Your comments
The flower labeled Chinese Forget-Me-Not is ...