The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Myosotis matthewsii

Etymology

Myosotis: mouse-eared
matthewsii: after Mathews

Common Name(s)

Matthew's forget-me-not

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Threatened - Nationally Critical

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Threatened - Nationally Endangered
2004 - Range Restricted

Qualifiers

2012 - DP, EF, OL
2009 - DP, EF, RR

Authority

Myosotis matthewsii L.B.Moore

Family

Boraginaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Synonyms

None (first described in 1961)

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.

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

This page last updated on 22 Aug 2017