Myosotis alpestris F. W. Schmidt

Herbs perennial. Stems single, erect or cespitose, 20-45 cm tall, sparsely spreading strigose, sometimes cottony. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate, narrowly oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, to 8 cm × 5-12 mm, strigose, hairs discoid at base, base attenuate, decurrent into a wing, margin entire, apex rounded to ± acute; upper stem leaves sessile, smaller. Inflorescences to 15 cm after anthesis, ebracteate. Pedicel erect in fruit, 4-6 mm, densely short strigose. Calyx 1.5-2.5 mm, to 4-5 mm in fruit, parted nearly to base; lobes lanceolate, with densely spreading or hooked hairs, apex acuminate. Corolla blue; tube ca. 2.5 mm; throat appendages ca. 0.5 mm; limb 6-8 mm wide; lobes 5, orbicular, ca. 3.5 mm. Anthers elliptic, apex with an orbicular appendage. Nutlets dark brown, ovoid, ca. 2 × 1 mm, smooth, shiny, base without appendages, margin narrow. 2n = 14, 24, 30, 48, 70, 72.

Europe, C. Asia, Himalaya, Siberia.

3200 m

Forest margins, slopes, meadows. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, N India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe, North America].

Myosotis alpestris subsp. asiatica Vestergren ex Hulten; M. imitata Sergievskaja; M. suaveolens Waldstein & Kitaibel; M. sylvatica Ehrhart subsp. alpestris Koch.