Myosotis stolonifera

Myosotis stolonifera (DC.) Gay ex Leresche & Levier

Pale forget-me-not

Status: scarce

This is a montane species, found over a wide variety of rocks although absent from limestone. It occurs in somewhat base-poor springs and seepage areas, soakways and flushes on the hillsides and in the valleys by pools, in ditches and in the backwaters of streams. The hillside springs and flushes are usually dominated by bryophytes, especially Dicranella palustris and Philonotis fontana; higher plant associates include Cardamine pratensis, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, Montia fontana, Saxifraga stellaris, Stellaria uliginosa and, less frequently, Epilobium alsinifolium. Myosotis secunda and the more base-tolerant Sphagnum spp., such as S. recurvum, may be associated with it in valley pools. It descends to 130 metres in the Lune Gorge and ascends to 820 metres near Cross Fell.

The stems of this perennial species root freely at the nodes and during the latter part of the summer they branch freely, producing a dense, floating mass of vegetation which breaks up and is an effective means of vegetative propagation. Seed production is apparently normal.

This species was apparently first collected by A. Wilson near Sedbergh in 1892 but it was not recognised as a new British species until 1926 when it was described by C.E. Salmon as M. brevifolia. It was subsequently realised that it was conspecific with M. stolonifera. The near tripling in the number of records, compared with those in the Atlas (Perring & Walters 1962), probably reflects past confusion with M. secunda and also a greater awareness of the species. It is probably still under-recorded. 

This species is endemic to Europe, and is confined to northern Portugal, Spain and Britain.

R. W. M. Corner & G. Halliday