forget-me-not

/feuhr get"mee not'/, n.

1. either of two small Old World plants, Myosotis sylvatica or M. scorpioides, of the borage family, having a light-blue flower commonly regarded as an emblem of constancy and friendship.

2. any of several other plants of the genus Myosotis.

3. any of various similar plants, esp. of the genus Anchusa or Cynoglossum.

[1525-35; trans. of MF ne m'oubliez mye]

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Any of about 50 species of plants that make up the genus Myosotis, in the borage family, native to temperate Eurasia and North America and to mountains of the Old World tropics.

Some are favoured as garden plants for their clusters of blue flowers. The woods forget-me-not (M. sylvatica), like most other species, changes colour from pink to blue as the tubular, flaring, five-lobed flower matures.

Woods forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)

Ingmar Holmasen

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▪ plant

 any of about 90 species of the plant genus Myosotis (family Boraginaceae), native to temperate Eurasia and North America and to mountains of the Old World tropics. Some are favoured as garden plants for their clusters of blue flowers. (For Chinese forget-me-not, see hound's-tongue.)

      The woods forget-me-not (M. sylvatica), like most other Myosotis, changes colour from pink to blue as the tubular, flaring, five-lobed flower matures.

      The water forget-me-not (M. scorpioides), shorter and more weak-stemmed, grows in marshlands but is otherwise similar. Both are perennial and occur in white- and pink-flowered forms as well as blue.

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