Forget-me-nots

You are probably familiar with the forget-me-not that grows in gardens.  In a wildflower book, this one is called Wood Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica).   It is an annual and grows from seed each year, flowering early and making a welcome sight when there is not much else about.  Once it has flowered, it produces lots of seed  and will pop up all over the garden - hence the name forget-me-not. 

Wood Forget-me-not

It easily establishes itself if any garden rubbish is dumped and today I found an attractive drift of it at the back of a lay-by (near the Allt Laraidh / Highland Folk Museum).

It is a bit of a giveaway that it came with garden rubbish as there are daffodils there as well! The yellow flower at the centre has the exciting name of Leopard's-bane and the even longer scientific name of Doronicum pardalianches.  It grows in shady areas, and not only spreads by seed but grows large fat white roots so it comes up year after year.

Leopard's-bane

There are many types of wild Forget-me-nots but the one I saw in flower this week was  the Changing Forget-me-not (Myosotis discolor). The flowers change from cream or yellow to blue which sounded intriguing and I was keen to see one.  I wasn't disappointed.  It is tiny but, for me, "small is beautiful" for this flower.  

It has a curled flower head with the older  flowers on the outside and new ones forming in the centre.

The flowers really are tiny, just 2mm across. They open yellow or cream coloured and then change to blue or pink.

Changing Forget-me-nots

They are another annual, and like disturbed bare ground.  This patch is by the 17th Tee  on Newtonmore Golf Course. (On Walk 2 in my book.)  There is also a neglected flowerbed there which last year was covered in Changing Forget-me-nots, but now that grass has grown over it, I could not see any, apart from these clumps at the base of the mini retaining wall for the tee.