Myosotis matthewsii
Common name
Matthews’s forget-me-not
Synonyms
None (first described in 1961)
Family
Boraginaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.
2012 | Threatened – Nationally Critical | Qualifiers: DP, EF, OL
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered | Qualifiers: DP, EF, RR
2004 | Range Restricted
Distribution
Endemic. New Zealand: North Island (western from near Kaitaia to Warawara Forest)
Habitat
Coastal to lowland near seepages and on damp colluvium at the base of cliffs, on damp ground around water fall plunge pools and on the margins of slow-flowing streams. It has also been recorded from poorly drained ground on the margins of walking tracks.
Features
Bright green, yellow-green to dark-green, widely creeping (rooting along extreme bases of lateral branches and from within rosette leaves), mostly sprawling annual to short-lived perennial herb.. Rosette-leaves variable in size 10–40 × 6–20 mm, lamina orbicular, mucronate, petiole10-40 mm long, sharply defined, very slender; hairs short, stiff, sparse, appressed, notably sparser below. Lateral branches, usually repeatedly branched, often interwoven, ascending to erect, up to 600 mm long, leaves mostly < internodes; branch hairs short, tightly appressed. Stem-leaves orbicular to rotund, petioles becoming progressively shorter and broader up branches with those leaves associated with flowers almost sessile, very broadly ovate, up to 15×8 mm; indumentum as for rosette leaves. Cyme ill-defined, obscured by leaves, 6-10-flowered, up to 180 mm long, arising mostly from above the highest branch. Flowers subtended by, opposite to, or just below a leaf. Pedicels 4-8 mm long. Calyx 2-3 mm long, very deeply divided, lobes narrow and spreading in fruit exposing nutlets; hairs short, stiff, appressed, confined to margins and midribs of lobes, crowded on base. Corolla white, 5-8 mm diameter, very openly campanulate, tube 1.5 mm long, scales minute, lobes oblong, c.2.5 × 1•5 mm; filaments fixed below scales, as long as lobes; anthers c.0•5 mm long, yellow; style 4-6 mm in fruit, stigma conspicuously capitate. Nutlets brown, 1.4-1.9 × 0.9-1.5 mm, elliptic to broadly elliptic brown.
Similar taxa
Very close to Myosotis spatulata and perhaps a form of that variable species. Matthew’s forget-me-not differs from that species by the near absence of roots from the lateral branches (roots when present confined to the very base of the branches), short and close appressed rather than somewhat spreading and untidy stem hairs; by the uniformly short and straight calyx hairs (of variable size in Myosotis spatulata with the largest often hooked), larger flowers with the corolla broadly open rather than narrow, and by the capitate rather than clavate stigma. However, intergrading forms exist and the status of Matthew’s forget-me-not needs critical study.
Flowering
October – January
Flower colours
White
Fruiting
November - February
Propagation technique
Easily grown from fresh seed. However, inclined to be short-lived and prone to attack from rusts, blights and aphids. Difficult to maintain.
Threats
Matthew’s forget-me-not has gone extinct from most of its range and is now only known with certainty from a single site. Populations have been lost mostly through land development and the associated spread of weeds. However, because this species is easily confused with Myosotis spathulata it is possible that some northern populations attributed to that species may on closer inspection prove to be Matthew’s forget-me-not.
Etymology
myosotis: Mouse-eared
matthewsii: After Mathews
Where To Buy
Not commercially available
Attribution
Fact Sheet prepared by NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 1 February 2008. Description subsequently published in de Lange et al. (2010).
References and further reading
de Lange, P.J.; Heenan, P.B.; Norton, D.A.; Rolfe, J.R.; Sawyer, J.W.D. 2010: Threatened Plants of New Zealand. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch.
Citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Myosotis matthewsii Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/myosotis-matthewsii/ (Date website was queried)