3. Myosotis stricta Link ex Roem. & Schult. (small-flowered forget-me-not, blue scorpiongrass)

M. micrantha Pall. ex Lehm., misapplied

Map 1305, Pl. 309 f, g

Plants annual, with slender taproots. Stems 2–20 cm long, erect or ascending, not rooting at the lower nodes, solitary or few to several, unbranched or with few ascending branches, densely pubescent with fine, loosely ascending to spreading, usually minutely pustular-based hairs, at least some of these hooked at the tip. Leaf blades 1–2 cm long, 4–7 mm wide, lanceolate to narrowly oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, rounded or broadly angled to a bluntly pointed tip, the surfaces and margins densely pubescent with fine, loosely ascending to spreading, minutely pustular-based hairs, at least some of these hooked at the tip. Inflorescences solitary at the stem tips, the spikelike racemes usually with additional solitary flowers in the axils of the median (and sometimes even lower) leaves, the flowers with stalks lacking or nearly so at flowering, elongating to 0.6–1.0 mm at fruiting and strongly to loosely ascending at fruiting, those above the apparent foliage leaves lacking bracts. Calyces 1.5–4.0 mm long, actinomorphic, 5-lobed about 1/2 of the way to the base, the lobes all more or less similar in appearance, narrowly triangular, densely pubescent with short, appressed hairs, these straight at the tip, the tube also with sparse to moderate spreading hairs that are hooked at the tip. Corollas 1.5–2.5 mm long, broadly funnelform to trumpet-shaped, the tube 0.6–1.0 mm long, the spreading portion 0.8–1.2 mm in diameter (measured across the tips of the lobes), light blue to blue, sometimes with a yellow spot in the throat, the outer surface often yellowish below the lobes. Stamens inserted toward the base of the corolla tube. Style 0.2–0.3 mm long, shorter than the nutlets. Nutlets 0.5–1.0 mm long, greenish brown. 2n=24, 36, 48. April–June.

Introduced, uncommon, known thus far only from Linn, Montgomery, and St. Louis Counties (native of Europe, introduced widely but sporadically in mostly the northern U.S., Canada). Tops of bluffs; also lawns and open, disturbed areas.

The nomenclature of this taxon remains controversial because of ambiguities in the application of names. Gleason and Cronquist (1991) called the species M. micrantha Pall. ex Lehm., which is the oldest name potentially applied to it. This was in agreement with the analysis of Stroh (1935), who suggested that the names M. micrantha and M. stricta applied to the same taxon based on his analysis of the literature and possible type specimens in the herbarium of the Royal Botanical Garden in Berlin. Other authors, however, have doubted that the two names in fact refer to the same taxon. For example, Al-Shehbaz (1991) suggested that, based on the published characters of yellow axillary flowers and wrinkled nutlets, the name M. micrantha should refer to a taxon in some genus other than Myosotis. Because the original publication of M. micrantha cited no type specimens and is therefore of somewhat uncertain application, the present treatment follows most of the recent European floristic literature in accepting M. stricta as the correct name for the taxon in question.

Myosotis stricta was first reported for Missouri by Christ (1984) from a site in Bee Tree County Park (St. Louis County) and has been found only rarely in the state.