Synonyms: Myosotis sylvatica, Myosotis alpestris Other names: Woodland Forget-me-not Nomenclature: asiatica = Asian Nativity / Invasiveness: Montana native plant
Medicinal plant
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Description
General: fibrous-rooted perennial with several or many stems 5-40 cm tall from a short, branched base, with stiff, short to medium length, spreading to somewhat flat hairs throughout.
Leaves: the basal ones oblanceolate to elliptic, up to 13 cm long, the stalk included, and 13 mm wide. Stem leaves alternate, several, smaller, seldom over 6 cm long, mostly oblong to lance-elliptic and stalkless.
Flowers: several in leafless clusters on branches, the clusters first compact and rather showy, eventually elongate and open, naked. Fruiting stalks ascend-spreading, about equaling or somewhat surpassing the 3-5 mm calyx. Calyx with stiff, spreading to somewhat flat hairs, and with some spreading, hooked hairs on the tube, the lobes distinctly longer than the tube. Corolla blue, rarely white, the flat limb mostly 4-8 mm wide with a yellow eye.
June-August.
Fruits: nutlets, shiny, smooth, black or blackish, the mature nutlets about 1.5 mm long, surpassing the style.
Distribution
Meadows and moist, open slopes at moderate to high elevations in the mountains, in w. and c. parts of MT. Also from AK to s. B.C., c. ID, n. WY, SD, and in Eurasia.
Medicinal Uses
The whole plant of mountain forget-me-not is astringent and ophthalmic. Used as a lotion, it is an excellent remedy for many eye diseases. It can also be ground into a powder and applied externally to wounds, and the leaf juice has been used to stop nose bleeds. The plant is harvested in May and can be dried for later use. Mountain forget-me-not is the state flower of Alaska. This species does well in the rock garden, but is best grown from seed. They need a partially shady spot and well drained, loamy soil with an addition of sand or grit.
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Medicinal plant
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